Annihilation (2018)
I am the Shimmer / Crawling everywhere at once,
My mother says I’ll always be her daughter and -
It’s like collaring a coyote I
Am wild I am not here I will
Consume you as you sleep.
I am your daughter like garlic is onions,
Like a crow is a falcon,
Like water is wine. Do you see?
I am the Shimmer
Crawling everywhere at once,
I am the shark-like rows of alligator teeth.
I cannot give you more or less than the shifting
Of flesh beneath my skin as it slices
Itself away piece-by-bloody-piece,
Revealing fur and muscle and need.
To become something other is to choose
To be born, even if no one else bears witness.
As I walk across the parking lot
You stare into my yellow canine eyes
Seeing them as baby blue, and tell me it’s raining
Under a banner of open clear sky.
Gabrielle Martin (they/them) is a poet living and working in Philly. Originally from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, much of their formative years were spent shucking corn. Their debut chapbook, Gritty City, is now available from Moonstone Press. Find them on Twitter @crabbygabie.
