here is an alphabet slicing open the belly of a boar. out come pulverized apples. vicodin. shoelaces. the neck of an artisanal soap maker. there is tobacco in the cupboard and a stew of cigarettes boils on the stove. inside the tv set a woman scolds the circumference of your belly. another prays for your children... to a dead god. WE HAVE TAKEN JERUSALEM OFF THE TABLE this year i resolved only to be filled by my lover’s silicone and god bless it i have made good on a few other promises and’ve gotten better at lying about the rest TELL HIM I TOO HAVE A NUCLEAR BUTTON & ITS MUCH BIGGER & IT WORKS under your pillow lives the imprint of a vibrator and a gun your friends stay over long as the roaches sleep in another room you watch a volkswagen burn out the corner of your eye. when you turn it disappears you finally finally call a specialist for help THEY ARE MAKING AMAZON RICHER & THE POST OFFICE DUMBER & POORER is it fair to call this new money, privilege? yours? it sweats blood into your pockets. each time a man dies on this block you lift the mailbox arm and bake bread there one is pitching sideways in the cheap cold and here you go keeping watch at an oven & A VERY STABLE GENIUS AT THAT! the phone grates your mothers throat into tiny pools of beet juice so small you don’t catch her staining into oceans at the bottom of the compost bin. the dog is dying. the car has folded itself up into stacks of chrome with your brother inside THE CONCEPT OF GLOBAL WARMING WAS CREATED BY AND FOR THE CHINESE here is the alphabet threading a tree to its bark. the sky is cool to touch. the oceans are sweet. PEOPLE ARE PROUD TO SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS AGAIN here it an alphabet piercing your cheek like a harpoon tethering your gums to the haunches of a sheriff's horse damn those creatures damn this submission to the metal baton damn the metal MERRY CHRISTMAS damn the tinsel those tiny car parts. little machetes mispronouncing your inner thigh HAPPY NEW YEAR TO THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD damn the confetti the shards of popsicle stick the throat pudding. damn the weeping. GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD on the television women count the corpses of palestinian children. Black girl’s skull is made metaphor. COLLUSION you cry WITH RUSSIA into your amazon boxes and turn away here IS A TOTAL HOAX is an alphabet lifting your fingernails one by one and place em in conflicts of a hundred and forty. the landlords stand back. they stand by your pockets. they’re watching you make it past the guillotine this week. this week. here is an alphabet changing the stories of your favorite gods telling them inside out START FALLING IN LOVE WITH here is an alphabet here go YOUR PRESIDENT english doing its slurry work HAPPY NEW YEAR! WE ARE MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN FASTER THAN ANYONE can flee the THOUGHT POSSIBLE! rough blade of a terror machine. how the hell in this mess can anyone find north can say a true thing can muster hands to a fanged WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! * THIS POEM CONTAINS ACTUAL TWEETS FROM THE 45TH PRESIDENT'S PERSONAL TWITTER HANDLE. REALLY.
Aurielle Marie (they/she) is a Black, Atlanta-born, Queer poet, essayist, and social strategist. She was selected by Fatimah Asghar as the 2019 winner of the Ploughshares Emerging Writer Award. Aurielle has received invitations to fellowships from Tin House, The Watering Hole, Pink Door, and served as the 2019 Writer-in-Residence for Lambda Literary. Aurielle’s essays and poems have been featured in or are forthcoming from The Guardian, TriQuarterly, Adroit Journal, Teen Vogue, BOAAT Magazine, Essence, and many other platforms. Their poetry debut, Gumbo Ya Ya, won the 2020 Cave Canem Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from the University of Pittsburgh Press on September 21, 2021.