Flora and Freaks

smiling in checkout lines

kneeling in pews

a child can raise the gun

and doesn’t look much different than you

*

a father can betray his ring

a pack of men laugh

as they spit on her

a mother can poison two bodies at once

nine months pregnant

*

there is no one safe

no holy jawbone

the dark pulse thumps

in every wrist

waiting

for its hour

wrists with questions carved

we are all freaks

*

but—

we are not only this

*

my image is founded on choice

on trembling will

on the voice that says stop

on the hand that refuses to strike

on the broken

who swear

not to break anyone else again

*

yes

we are all monsters in captivity

so mercy can walk again

so love can tame

don’t try to explain it

*

i don’t care if this is one big reverie

you’re dreaming it too

*

even the man in costume

behind a pulpit

could choose

a single moment

where mercy outweighs hunger

and yet

he prays for forgiveness from God

not from the ones he broke

*

you’re in this curse with me

and

blood is our only redemption

*

the only conviction i know

is a flower

that doesn’t even know—

it’s a flower

*

this sphere doesn’t exist

for a world of wild hearts

to claw the globe