Second Coming No. 9 – Jan. 28, 2025
A poem-a-day series responding to the threat posed to our democracy by the current presidential administration
J. Gay
First Body — Woman Hitchhiking
(From a series of poems written from points of view characters in a slasher movie)
He ripened me in the hot, humid dark
before putting me out to violent rest by the cane field.
My body peeling off into the dirt and blades
of grass cutting through me.
Blast of early summer heat.
Thick stink of old sweat.
He wants my rot to find her.
He wants her ruby-throated
horror high-keening, all perfume and matte finish skin.
(The news will talk about a body found.
Just parts—kneecaps, thumbs, teeth—
and it’ll be panic for all those Whole People.)
But she, even in the opening scene, knows
bodies are just piecemeal bullshit.
She lies down next to me during this dream of day,
her fingers stroking the slick grease of my hair,
and waits for the police to come.
J. Gay lives in Maine and writes while watching animals venture out of the marsh by her house. Her chapbook Decomposition can be found at Dancing Girl Press.
Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current presidential administration. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.
Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.
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