Poetry
by E. Kristin Anderson
Cupboards at My Back,
Constellations Below
(a golden shovel after Kesha)
I keep looking under my fingernails and finding hot
clover, a wet tea of skin and hillside. We are in and
out of truth; I let shadows come whisper dangerous
because they have not lied to me. Remember: Even if
the tide comes heavy-handed, I’ll still watch while you’re
breathing sick, winding circles in the sand. This is one
of those stories where the girl dies and a whole sky of
clouds can’t keep the northern star a secret from us—
a kiss to bless in salt and cinnamon. Show me, then,
the curse of the coast, the quaint recollections that roll
false from your plates and your spoons. I cut a meal with
bone and flame—and here the southern sky releases us.
The Kitchen Is on
Fire Again
(a golden shovel after Kesha)
When I became cold, the animals knew. And you
were the hail banging at the glass. Tonight I can’t
remember the names of men—so I will imagine
that I used to hold them like fresh roses, letting the
stems bear those thorns. You think the immensity
here is the blood or the water—perhaps the slip of
the time in which I’ve ignored this withering, the
sinking to lace knotted by the dirt. At night I fuck
the sky—just another way to live. Still I move. I’m
collecting honeysuckle and foxglove—holy. It’s not
only hunger. They know my teeth. Know I’m giving.
E. Kristin Anderson is a poet, Starbucks connoisseur, and glitter enthusiast living in Austin, Texas. She is the editor of Come As You Are, an anthology of writing on ‘90s pop culture (Anomalous Press) and Hysteria: Writing the Female Body (Sable Books, forthcoming). Kristin is the author of nine chapbooks of poetry, including A Guide for the Practical Abductee (Red Bird Chapbooks), Pray, Pray, Pray: Poems I Wrote to Prince in the Middle of the Night (Porkbelly Press), Fire in the Sky (Grey Book Press), 17 seventeen XVII (Grey Book Press), and Behind, All You’ve Got (Semiperfect Press, forthcoming). Kristin is an assistant poetry editor at The Boiler and an editorial assistant at Sugared Water. Once upon a time she worked nights at The New Yorker. Find her online at www.EKristinAnderson.com and on Twitter at @ek_anderson.