Issue #54


Authors

There Is No Door In Me

Content Warning: Description of blood/violence

And there is no door in this hall,

excepting the one

in my chest, meaning:

There is no door in me. See


There is no knob in my navel.

Which you could tug on or,

twist, jossle, jilt aside.

There is no copper


zipper in my side

which runs from groin to left armpit.

My hair there is not a

pull and I wax it now.


My lips are not the screw top of an

orange juice carton. Behind my teeth is

pen -- fountain -- ink -- squid son of an oil slick

but an ocean is on fire behind pursed, bulging lips.


No citrus in my lips’ purse. That handbag is hot.

Flick off. Flicker bird blood is 

under allwings. Fire -- oil -- sapsucker

You cannot trepentrate me. My trunk is no tree.


Hammer a hole in my skull and ink cometh.

Screw a screw in my nail, ink cometh.

Drive a nail in my tooth, ink cometh.

Dig a mineshaft in my heart. Blood is there still.


And besides, my head 

is not a lampshade

Meaning:


You cannot unscrew and replace

my eye


once it has burned out.

To the Ocean

this is me — ing.