junk | Bella Stevens


Poetry | | Spring 2023

strangerspit
on a rolled-up twenty
feeling the fangs
that swam inside it
engulfed in that
coked juice cocktail
rotten enamel
sloshing through her throat
reminds me of this

                                                     withered sack of bones
                                                     piss-stained teeth &
                                                     spidered sick by
                                                     serendipitous mutilation–
                                                     ritualistic cleansing,
                                                     becoming a vulture’s nest:
                                                     an amalgamation of carcasses

i hear them weeping
pouring out through my sweat
stickstuck on my skin
my bones might just snap
yearning to spring from their sockets
ripping right through my flesh:

                                                     a cold kind of oozing
                                                     molten bloodslush pouring out
                                                     every orifice ripped
                                                     then filled
                                        & my body will exit itself
                                        leaving this deflated skin
                                        the human rind i’ve worn
                                        hiding my animal insides
                                        that scrape & scratch

leaving bruises
on prominent veins

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Bella Stevens (she/they) is a writer and visual artist based out of Richmond, VA. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Messenger and Virginia Literary Review.