What Rough Beast | 08 18 20 | Lindsay Stewart

Lindsay Stewart
Cento for the Growing Edge

Feminists are desperately anxious / search for nourishment / they’ve practiced staying alive / wild animal growls. snarls. werewolf. surely. monster! like with fangs and wings and it can fly / lucky girl. lucky. nine lives / we looked for disorder / this is my history / models dead on the runways, with their legs facing backward / our leader has left us, too / today, as this war begins, every word we say is / how long can we maintain / a warning: / when I reach for yours waists, I reach for bombers / I am hungry / it has to be understood, that / it is an entire herd: massive / after upsetting the tables and rejecting the lure, we were disenchanted, but / it’s not just about / empty stables / these things go in cycles, like everything else / desperate and angry, a number / on the growing edge

Cast, in order of first appearance: The Unabomber Manifesto; Baaa; White Noise; The Dark Knight Returns; Holy Terror; Negativeland; Grasshopper Jungle; Feed; Modern Life; This Connection of Everyone with Lungs; Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

—Submitted on 08/12/2020

Lindsay Stewart is a graduate student in American literature at San Diego State University. Her work has appeared in The Alcala Review, BEATS, and The Los Angeles Review, and has been featured on the Poetry Foundation’s VS podcast.

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