fly trap. Because I’m all acid up inside &
yellow when light slaps just right. Grew
this crown just for you because
I know how you like everything
that bites. Seen you succumb
to want just as hard as any other
pain. When you asked me to love
in more honest ways, I heard this ruin
doesn’t happen only in the dark. What good
is fantasy when hunger always takes
back what it offers? You & I know gluttony
is the deadly sin that least satisfies
itself. Meat begets meat & the world
is what rises back. Say my mouth
is too much red but tongue is the only
organ I use for anything
other than my own pleasure.
Call me conqueror
or not, I eat flight & surrender just
the same & spit you back mercy
to mark your dead. It’s anyone’s funeral
& you’ll cry if I ask you to. I might,
but really it’s your bleeding I want. Don’t think
me cruel, only bright-mouthed & unafraid
of beauty. The heart wants what it knows
will burn. In the end I’m a simple
kind of animal: turn up the night &
let me show you how I suck
the light from your name, sow my teeth
into every
tender thing.
yellow when light slaps just right. Grew
this crown just for you because
I know how you like everything
that bites. Seen you succumb
to want just as hard as any other
pain. When you asked me to love
in more honest ways, I heard this ruin
doesn’t happen only in the dark. What good
is fantasy when hunger always takes
back what it offers? You & I know gluttony
is the deadly sin that least satisfies
itself. Meat begets meat & the world
is what rises back. Say my mouth
is too much red but tongue is the only
organ I use for anything
other than my own pleasure.
Call me conqueror
or not, I eat flight & surrender just
the same & spit you back mercy
to mark your dead. It’s anyone’s funeral
& you’ll cry if I ask you to. I might,
but really it’s your bleeding I want. Don’t think
me cruel, only bright-mouthed & unafraid
of beauty. The heart wants what it knows
will burn. In the end I’m a simple
kind of animal: turn up the night &
let me show you how I suck
the light from your name, sow my teeth
into every
tender thing.
KJ Li is an LGBT+ Chinese-American raised in central Texas. She currently lives in Washington, D.C., where she takes long walks and misses the family cat. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Chestnut Review, Lumiere Review, Cobra Milk, Windows Facing Windows Review, Eunoia Review, and others.