New poetry from Featured Artist Jeremy Mifsud
Today Featured Artist Jeremy Mifsud shares a collection of poems, chosen exclusively for Animal Heart Press.
(Trigger warning: This work addresses sexual assault. Please exercise self care while reading.)
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| Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash |
The Necessity of Poetry
I must write because
a blank page is
white flag
waved over my body.
He used me
without consent,
but I refuse
to burn down.
I walk in battlezone,
feet on scorched earth,
sewing back
scraps of body parts.
His memory is now ink,
printed on paper;
unable to break free;
I’m winning the war.
bombshell
i was enjoying
talking to you
until i heard
the word rape
my mind
oozed
out of
my body
i couldn’t feel
my heartbeat
my breath,
couldn’t even hear
the sound
coming out
of your lips
numb to everything
i witnessed the darkness
taint my memories of you,
their light dispersing in a blink.
My Body is a Crime Scene
after Blythe Baird
When a guy puts
his hands on my waist,
I pull back
to keep my bones in place.
How do you tell somebody
to be delicate
without becoming an object
of pity?
I lock myself
in an isolation cell,
curl in a cold corner
& rock my body to sleep.