Six Poems by Clinton W. Waters
Hatched at Home
What genetic memories are wedged within my bones, hedging my wings?
*
Antennae
Subtle signals inscrutable. Tang taste of hello. Sweet scent of rot.
*
Soft-Hearted
My insides are alive, sloshing hemolymph washing guts and unsaid words.
*
Chrysalis
Clear veneer. Do you know how I want to be broken?
*
Migration
I'm leaving today. Be right back. A better but familiar form.
*
The Parasite's Plea
(After Jane Kenyon)
Let him love me
as a glove loves
its hand. As a shovel
loves soft soil.
Let him look upon me
and see my need,
like the sword
needed Judith.
Let my body become
the miraculous sum
he wishes, like a crowd
fed with three fishes.
And let him be not afraid
of how I was made. Let
my miserable meat
be minced and flayed.
Let him love me
as a push loves a shove.
God transubstantiate me
with division and revision.
Let him forgive me
for this shape I've taken.
It was the only one on offer
when God told clay to wake.
Clinton W. Waters was born and raised in Bowling Green, Kentucky. They hold a degree in Creative Writing from WKU, and their work has appeared in university publications and Indecent Magazine. They are the author of several self-published titles of sci-fi such as (UN)Bury Your Gays, -30-, and INVERT.