LOUDSPEAKER:: Poem by CJ Strauss

Writing

Jun 29

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WUSSY is proud to present poetry by CJ Strauss.
If you would like to send in a writing submission, please contact Nicholas Goodly.

Bang

Take me, O flayer of finery,
weekday priest of sour milk.
On my knees, in your mouth
Release me, invert me, desert me.

O hided lord of New York, to hunger is to want,
to want is to know, to know is to be.
But you have supped already, aching
ever-legged on a bull skin point

uniting tongue and heel. Beat true
the memory of impulse. Speak vain
the boy begot by ghost and Virgin,
Feast in spite of our fathers, who feasted

in spite of their others, who starved
in spite of their children, who grew to
recur their condition, who starved for different reasons.
Feast for the sake of feasting.

Let spare the surplus of our sex
and rest, O woman, O spirit,
I am your servant, your maker,
the lump in your throat, the stone

at your foot, the hole
in your heart. I could go on.
I could go on. I could go on.
I could—and long, and sing,

and scream. I could be anything—
the black vision of a mirror dream. O master,
leather blood letter, I thank the faith abandoned
for bringing us together.

CJ Strauss (he/they) is a poet based in New York.

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