A gasp for air
from a slim bluegill.
Speckling light turns the fish into a moth
that flies into & over a hollowed human
-sized cat skull.
The last witch
breaks her fast
by stomaching foreign desires.
She spits them out, bruise-colored,
into a clear glass of ash.
This is also a performance.
Everything bruised
cannot look up or out of the void.
The procession follows
to one-way glass. A casket
under a microscope.
The witch rests
on the slender spine of a dead man’s
oldest daughter as she keels
over, repeating:
The body. The body. The body.
Blackbird
An online journal of literature and the arts
close
Elly Salah
Elly Luisa Salah is an MFA candidate in poetry at Bowling Green State University. She received a BA from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she studied sociology and creative writing. Salah is the daughter of Algerian & Danish immigrants. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming in Bear Review, Sonora Review, swamp pink, Taos Journal of Poetry, and others. She is also an assistant editor for MAR, co-managing the Mid-American Review blog.
Footer
