My head has been replaced
with blue hydrangeas & I think
acid-panicle thoughts. Mark edges
of sounds but—I’ll never be
a vowel. Irreversible shapes are
everywhere. Some would call this
perfect desire: hair sharply parted
at the nape of the neck. I know
this much. We sound
the same, like a pun. & sometimes
I see people smiling in cars (I’m not
in control of my fate). But I know
perfect desire. My sexuality was
awoken watching a lean, curly-haired
man transform into a giant
fly. In the right light
a scab can look like
an amethyst. Someone might
even compliment you
on your piercing. I once saw
a cottontail rabbit chew through
the trunk of AEIOU. It fell
in a shower of purple
blossoms. Can it be
true? A rabbit’s teeth
never stop growing? If it comes
down to it, I’ll eat the sound
out of your mouth.
Cassandra Leone is an MFA Poetry candidate at UC Irvine. She is originally from the Bay Area in California, and completed her undergraduate degree as a ‘non-traditional student’ at Smith College in Massachusetts. Her poems have been published in The Roadrunner Review and The Milvia Street Journal. Additionally, she’s self published two limited edition letterpress chapbooks at Smith College’s Apiary Press. She’s been awarded the Lynn Garnier Memorial Award for poetry, the Nora Folkenflik Award for Excellence in Poetry, and the Academy of American Poets Prize. She currently resides in San Diego with her boyfriend and pet rabbit.
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