if your soul was an ice cream, what flavor would it be?
- rainbow sherbet melting peach-pink on your father’s child-fingers.
- rocky road but instead of nuts there are the beaks of baby doves. the marshmallows are already on fire.
- something purple and star-dusted that swivels like the head of an owl and eats the tongues of men with hats.
- a pile of dirty snow and wisdom teeth.
if you were to rip the skin from your chest, what color would the yarn be underneath?
- winter’s sighs.
- green like mermaid’s sharpest canines.
- your father’s grief, unburied.
- her fingernails the night you dove into the street.
in a past life, you:
- were a world-renowned figure skater, murdered by the blade of your own skates.
- removed the safety pins holding together your ribs, laid back and let the dust take you.
- watched the salt water eat your arms bony and bare and water-speckled. you used to hate the beach when you were young. today, it tells you things you can’t understand.
- held her a little closer before the elevator doors shut. before the pushpins on bedspreads, the unanswered cries for help.
if you stand still long enough:
- the trees speak their own language, and you just begin to understand it.
- she comes back, spins around twice. won’t look you in the eye.
- you should have loved her louder (you don’t know)
- your elbows become the windows to your soul (those crooked, sharp things, all the black eyes they’ve birthed.)
with what kind of wine would you be paired?
- something too sweet, that sizzles against your lungs (forgiveness is a screaming thing)
- something haloed by the sound of vomit, early morning (just let me have this)
- something pale, like her skin as she tried to stumble home (please)
- something that nestles you like shark-toothed velvet. something that won’t let you forget.
Wanda Deglane is a night-blooming desert flower from Arizona. She is the daughter of Peruvian immigrants and attends Arizona State University. Her poetry has been published or forthcoming from Rust + Moth, Glass Poetry, Drunk Monkeys, Yes Poetry, and elsewhere. Wanda is the author of Rainlily (2018), Lady Saturn (Rhythm & Bones, 2019), Honey-Laced Garbage Dreams (Ghost City Press, 2019), Venus in Bloom (Porkbelly Press, 2019), and Bittersweet (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2019). Twitter: @wandalizabeth Instagram: @wandadeglane