E. KRISTiN ANDERSON
Ill and Down, the Honey Heart
(a golden shovel after Kesha)
So loud and so careful, the oak at my back knows me well
and bends to leave a branch for my spine. Touch here—this
is the hole we punch through the night, the tongue I could
call my own decked in juniper berries and sin. I’m almost
at the river again; the edge of the sky holds me open to kill
the memory of silver, that chill oblivion sinking toward me.
I remember how to cry, to scream, to howl bright like a young
coyote in a rough lace dress. Like a woman stuck dead in love
with herself and her night. Begin slow. See how I am murdered:
in my sleep, sweating, wrapped in cellophane and sugar. That
is where you find me—feathered, open, and sweet. This is
how it ends: Now. And I’ll lead you out there collecting what
I can of the branches, waking at 5am with trees burning—this
body is built strange in blood and raspberries and earth. It must
know the love I’ve lived—a sinister woman knows how to be.
(a golden shovel after Kesha)
So loud and so careful, the oak at my back knows me well
and bends to leave a branch for my spine. Touch here—this
is the hole we punch through the night, the tongue I could
call my own decked in juniper berries and sin. I’m almost
at the river again; the edge of the sky holds me open to kill
the memory of silver, that chill oblivion sinking toward me.
I remember how to cry, to scream, to howl bright like a young
coyote in a rough lace dress. Like a woman stuck dead in love
with herself and her night. Begin slow. See how I am murdered:
in my sleep, sweating, wrapped in cellophane and sugar. That
is where you find me—feathered, open, and sweet. This is
how it ends: Now. And I’ll lead you out there collecting what
I can of the branches, waking at 5am with trees burning—this
body is built strange in blood and raspberries and earth. It must
know the love I’ve lived—a sinister woman knows how to be.
E. Kristin Anderson is a poet, Starbucks connoisseur, and glitter enthusiast living in Austin, Texas. She is the editor of Come as You Are, an anthology of writing on 90s pop culture (Anomalous Press), and Hysteria: Writing the female body (Sable Books, forthcoming). Kristin is the author of nine chapbooks of poetry including A Guide for the Practical Abductee (Red Bird Chapbooks), Pray, Pray, Pray: Poems I wrote to Prince in the middle of the night (Porkbelly Press), Fire in the Sky (Grey Book Press), 17 seventeen XVII (Grey Book Press), and Behind, All You’ve Got (Semiperfect Press, forthcoming). Kristin is an assistant poetry editor at The Boiler and an editorial assistant at Sugared Water. Once upon a time she worked nights at The New Yorker. Find her online at EKristinAnderson.com and on twitter at @ek_anderson.