9/26/2019 POETRY: RASIQRA REVULVAOCTOPO AND TEUTHIET Two octopoteuthis deletron squid collided in the Pacific depths at sunset in July. Each one mirrored the other, with a shimmering, voluptuous, sperm-plastered mantle, and engorged arms bursting with come-hither barbs. The squid fell deeply in love. But soon they found themselves unable to feed. Both deletrons were inevitably drawn to hunting the other, now possessing the only flesh each craved in all the ocean. They pledged a vow of starvation, lest they risk consuming each other. With every passing wave, their bodies grew less sumptuous; their love more incandescent. And one November morning, both flesh and love were gone. OCTOPOLIS a cracked silver mirror reflects no octopus; its sand-blessed face now blasted and dark. wriggling copepods blind to the harvest, swarm on the bars of a vintage metal birdcage. given your eyeglasses, an octopus would shun the primitive lenses; covet their frames. gilded candelabra! ardent octopodes recreate your branchial arcs with flesh. see here, li’l miss mermaid! this octopus has one dinglehopper your museum can’t claim. her move: palpitating to the white king. a tentacular caress. checkmate. in an octopus’ untrained suckers, swords are more direct and less efficient than beaks if an hourglass lurked half-submerged in white sand, could an octopus measure a minute? splintered seashells in a nacreous mosaic frame an abalone portrait of you. BREEDING GROUNDS: EMPTY CALORIES so much depends upon the Greenland shark grinding its toxic jaws into a gaunt polar bear Rasiqra Revulva is a queer femme writer, multi-media artist, editor, musician, performer, SciComm advocate, and one half of the glitch-art and experimental electronic duo The Databats. If You Forget the Whipped Cream, You're No Good As A Woman (Gap Riot Press, 2018) is her second chapbook. She is currently adapting her first chapbook Cephalopography (words(on)pages press, 2016) into her debut collection, to be published by Wolsak & Wynn in spring 2020. Learn more at: @rasiqra_revulva and @thedatabats.
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