Guillotine
by Ariel K. Moniz
Looking into my childhood
tastes like secondhand prophecy
feels like sucking on a color-changing Jawbreaker--
never quite reaching the end,
entranced by the mystery of the coming colors
stimulated by the pain.
I knew what life would be early on,
for me, the pain started young.
I learned how to ride a racing heartbeat,
how to feel from my toenails to my teeth
full to my narrow brim with the capacity
to ache.
Just in case.
Just in case
came with nuclear fallout--
a childhood in ruins,
radiation poisoning for generations.
It’s the latter really that’s the killer.
I’m quite accustomed to the bombs
that drop from their open palms--
No, it’s the oozing and coagulating inside,
the realization that you are still alive
in the trauma ward of life--
that’s the problem,
that’s the death of your light.
That’s why people look so much like guns,
how challenges cripple us like enemies,
and life, that sordid walk to the guillotine.
tastes like secondhand prophecy
feels like sucking on a color-changing Jawbreaker--
never quite reaching the end,
entranced by the mystery of the coming colors
stimulated by the pain.
I knew what life would be early on,
for me, the pain started young.
I learned how to ride a racing heartbeat,
how to feel from my toenails to my teeth
full to my narrow brim with the capacity
to ache.
Just in case.
Just in case
came with nuclear fallout--
a childhood in ruins,
radiation poisoning for generations.
It’s the latter really that’s the killer.
I’m quite accustomed to the bombs
that drop from their open palms--
No, it’s the oozing and coagulating inside,
the realization that you are still alive
in the trauma ward of life--
that’s the problem,
that’s the death of your light.
That’s why people look so much like guns,
how challenges cripple us like enemies,
and life, that sordid walk to the guillotine.
Ariel K. Moniz is a lifelong writer, emerging poet, and avid reader. She is a witch, a womanist, and a wanderer who embraces life through the written word. Her work has been published in Bloodbath Literary Zine, Vamp Cat Magazine, and Pussy Magic, among others. She is currently working on her first poetry collection as well as a novel. Visit her at kissoftheseventhstar.home.blog.