What Rough Beast | Poem for May 16, 2019

Anastasia Jill
a Man is a Ham Radio
WC: 284

He built me a bomb /
a brain full of wires; some blue, some white, all red /
He cork and screws me full of knowledge
/ my box is the wonder, he grabs my world of antennas

/ I AM STARING AT HIS BUILD
/ I DIDN’T MEAN TO
/ HE IS TRYING TO WORK
/ AND A WOMAN CANNOT UNDERSTAND HIS WORK /

^

He is dismissive / plucks me from his field of vision
/ the protruding bone gets pulled from the fillet
/ and like a rat / gets tossed to the sewer drain
/ This is him
/ a jerk
/ and this is me
/ WOMAN

^

/ AM I A WOMAN TO ANNOY him or IS IT COMPULSORY

I promise him I’m not trying /
/ and he wonders what happened to me
/ WHAT ARE YOU DOING
/ HUH? BABE?
/ WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

He hears all my thoughts and I relent
/ I’M WATCHING YOU BUILDING A BOMB

/ he says HE IS THE BOMB
/ I think he is joking
/ call him A HAM

/ A MAN IS A HAM AND A MAN IS A HAM
/ my nursery rhyme ain’t a crime

/ until he detonates / and he tells me /
/ A WOMAN IS SPINELESS

^

Making myself into a bloated sandwich /

I sit in his mouth and try to see his world /

/ a small frequency comes in, a titter of jazz music of static, and a voice / an explosion

/ ARE YOU THERE?
/ ARE YOU THERE?
/ TELL ME WOMAN
/ ARE
/ YOU

/ THERE ????

Anastasia Jill is a lesbian writer living in the South. Her work has appeared in Lunch Ticket, FIVE:2:ONE, apt, Anomaly Literary Journal, 2River, Gertrude, Minola Review, Sheila-Na-Gig online, Rise Up Review, Blakelight, The Writing Disorder, The Bookends Review, and other journals.

SUBMIT to What Rough Beast via our SUBMITTABLE site.