two poems

by Olivia Rose

h***

was mouth of a manmade monster.

was television rot.

was joke without reaction.

was attachment disorder.

was burnt leaf and branch.

was unknown song.

felled the trees in the backyard

                and burned the offering.

was pleasing to the L-rd.

                was pleasing

and a handbag was hand         and hook,

was butcher block fingertip

was jungle machete.

was unmarked frame,

                                was mouth

                and the angel bloodless

                swam through the door,

walked past pavement-ridden

                men and dropped a dollar,

exploded all the terrorists

                infant in their mothers’ arms,

broke loose and let flood

                the pigs into the noise.

was pig mouth.

was pig noise.

was did we say it conviction

was noise.

was crave and corner.

was, wait.

was mouth screamed existence

                into empty troposphere.

was scream.        mouth

to mouth.

Martyrs Mommy

martyrs mommy got a tumbleweed tummy got a growing dummy got a pacified yummy gotta yuck my cum gotta catch the yam wagon going before it’s gone gotta hoe the land gotta be a land hoe gotta be a work hoe mommy I’m ho(m)e look at me go look at me cutting my own throat look at the blood god holds from me look at the open sky i cry and i cry and i die inside mommy martyrs gonna make money in heaven martyrs got a road of gold mommy martyrs gonna shove some yum in my fun martyrs gonna be my mommy mommy got a tickled three days got a happy little grave got a second to save got a life to gave gonna fire these joints gonna christen these loins gonna use my arms gonna hold them hard in heaven mommy look at me fly look at me die silly look at me blitz their eyes look at me cross that t in terrorize look at me run my fun to the dump mommy fire’s gonna go down the chute to the bins flames gonna be so big gotta fuck their fun gotta slave their sun mommy martyrs gotta make funny martys gotta dumb my hum look at me hung look at me sung look at me pages and pages and all of my wages gonna be big mommy gonna be yum martyrs gonna kiss you and run

Photo of Olivia Rose

BIO: Olivia Rose was born and raised in San Jose. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Jose State University, where she earned the Alan Soldofsky Award for Outstanding MFA Thesis and served as Reed Magazine's Senior Poetry Editor. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Denver Quarterly, Qu Literary Magazine, Red Coyote, Scapegoat Review, and elsewhere. She lives in San Francisco.