TERSE. Journal

if your soul was an ice cream, what flavor would it be?

1. rainbow sherbet melting peach-pink on your father’s child-fingers.
2. rocky road but instead of nuts there are the beaks of baby doves. the marshmallows are already on fire.
3. something purple and star-dusted that swivels like the head of an owl and eats the tongues of men with hats.
4. 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?

1. winter’s sighs.
2. green like mermaid’s sharpest canines.
3. your father’s grief, unburied.
4. her fingernails the night you dove into the street.

in a past life, you:

1. were a world-renowned figure skater, murdered by the blade of your own skates.
2. removed the safety pins holding together your ribs, laid back and let the dust take you.
3. 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.
4. 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:

1. the trees speak their own language, and you just begin to understand it.
2. she comes back, spins around twice. won’t look you in the eye.
3. you should have loved her louder (you don’t know)
4. 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?

1. something too sweet, that sizzles against your lungs (forgiveness is a screaming thing)
2. something haloed by the sound of vomit, early morning (just let me have this)
3. something pale, like her skin as she tried to stumble home (please)
4. 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