THREE Poems
Charlotte
HEATHER †
GLADIOLA
for Kate Bickmore
sword lily don’t split me
but drape across my back
and shoulders
with soft peach petal kiss
i know that tingle-touch and i want
to twine you, gently, between my fingers
without breaking you apart
i broke you before—you’ve been hybridised
for my gaze, consumption
i am sorry
i know that you waited earnestly, yearningly
once, for the thirsty dip
of a long tongue
in your flower spikes, grieving
to be pollinated by an anthophorini bee
a long time ago
sword lily whip crack
against my back because i
deserve it
then gently drape my shoulders, nose,
with soft peach petal kiss
but drape across my back
and shoulders
with soft peach petal kiss
i know that tingle-touch and i want
to twine you, gently, between my fingers
without breaking you apart
i broke you before—you’ve been hybridised
for my gaze, consumption
i am sorry
i know that you waited earnestly, yearningly
once, for the thirsty dip
of a long tongue
in your flower spikes, grieving
to be pollinated by an anthophorini bee
a long time ago
sword lily whip crack
against my back because i
deserve it
then gently drape my shoulders, nose,
with soft peach petal kiss
anthurium
– syllables that wet my lips
so that they glisten like the skin
of your petals, waxy gleam,
that circles, protruding the dimpling
of your spadix,
your spike,
minute flowers arranged snug about a
fleshy axis, almost grotesque
like the best things in life
flowering soft but firm
how i like it
shining with christmas time brightness
your gory internal intimate red
against vibration green
i want you by my bed
so i can wake up and see you lush
leaning on the totem that you dutifully climb
naked,
trembling
alongside me
in that slight draft
that makes the curtains fuss
and we act like we’ve released oxytocin,
prolactin,
gamma amino butyric acid,
in other words, serene
nepenthes northiana
you can devour me
i don’t mind. i want you to eat me up and mulch me in your acids
i’ll sleep inside your pitcher cup and go willingly hungrily into that
good night
curled up inside your death womb
(make me feel like the insect that i am)
or if that makes you feel uncomfortable we can live in symbiosis
i will be your carpenter ant
i just wanna hunker down and bathe inside your juices i don’t care what they do to me
baptise me, baby, in your viscoelastic biopolymers
i will slip on your wet peristome lips and thud inside you
deep in your globe there’s a whole world
i will huff on your sweet must
i must
Charlotte HEATHER is a writer, musician and co-founder of Rita Munus; a writing and art based workshop facilitation project. Her work has appeared in On Paper: An Unofficial Love Island Anthology, Corda Magazine and The Bohemoth. Her pamphlet of queer speculative fiction is forthcoming with Koroula SF. She’s currently working on a novel concerning bodies, sex and gender alongside facilitating workshops at Cubitt Gallery for Rita Munus project Write It Speak It Move It. Her band, Solution Hours, have just released their latest single, Kneading (see here & here).
† If you are reading on a telephone, portrait view of these works will interupt the lineation; we recommend either reading in landscape or on a computer.