Research: Journals
The Journal
Past Issues
29.1
Alex Lemon
Better Cleaning with VoodooBefore cruelty pours like concrete
into the ravine between belly-button & chin,
love’s tiny tumbleweeds thud the ribs.
Lamely, they plink & plunk like stoned molecules
coming down. No room for regret,
they roll en masse like Hells Angels
on spine-rides of passion crimes.
Not yet rotten cabbage, the heart glows
like a pearl beneath a pier, a jellyfish
squeezing away. This space is the body part
with no name. Paradise of heart beats.
So booming teeth crumble, ears collapse.
Flick the belly-button until it flattens
into a dimly lit stage. Watch the lung’s pink
curtains swish away, uncover a woman
in top hat who saws herself in half.
Doves pull lipsticked questions
from her eyes as her breasts tumble. Voila!!—
albino tigers lick each other to music
that steams like cheek to cheek
in a hailstorm, & POOF—the sky falls
off its hinges. The lights grow bright.
It’s the end, you think—you’re winnowing
your clubfooted way to heaven
when the spotlight focuses like winter
sucker-punching spring. & there I am,
giving the world the finger as I blow
you a rebellion of kisses in hope you’ll love
all my failures. Furiously, they scrub
the abracadabra off my body as I wink & smile,
smoking in this bathtub burning with leaves.
