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Omnipotence by Eva Alter

Grief-cotton funnels my synapses forked
as the Khartoum split into live sawflies,
primitive woodwasp weapons

gnaw neocortex matter into an
ire-imitative imago-icebox—
Injured autobiography;

barometer-tabulation of shock-
sin—I was born with a murder ballad
wasp-stung sharp in my esophagus;

I sing as I butcher prayers with my shame,
conjure leviathan with my drone-dirge.
I obliterate my pulsed breath often

as I berate it—My assassin-brain
knows it is a predator—My body
knows it must eat my saw-abdomen from

within: I consume my crime so I can
impel leviathan to pursue it
past my gut into my spine—A wandering Sin-

eater: I am the coffin and I am
its God, monster and master of my Sea—
Its saw-swaying sacrament is salty on my tongue.

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