andromeda strain
she used to comb her daughter's hair
and hold discarded strands under her tongue
like salted pearls,
discreet
they were naked together
bathing in milk sent from the promised land in preparation for the gilded altar
built from the rusted remains of promise rings and pressed coins
she gave her prize to the ocean's son
still lusting secret for the crest of waves to flood
the garden and wash away the
impending rot
colored jade, she rasied the flag and
brought ships from
beneath the horizon
while her daughter set her hair alight and wept with the burden of burning
though she kissed the mouths of kings with bloody lips,
it was algae that made her t r e m b l e
when she shoveled fistfuls in her mouth,
tasting the ashy scent of her betrayed womb
and when the tangled web of saliva dripping from snake tongues
froze her dusty hatred, it trapped her
daughter's moaning over torn and trampled skirt hems in her fist,
hidden like crab shells buried on the beach
chains brushed her bare thigh
over and over again
until bruises in the shape of scorn were all the
universe could see, sour and yellow, eternal
do you love me still, mitera?
never and always until the day that i die.
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