by Natalie Zina Walschots
1.
carve a petroglyth into my belly
jagged, angry
a key against a car door
2.
They are so much more than heads
heavy lids
brutal nose
sharp plane and fat lip
buried to the shoulders
like a poor schmuck in debt
to the mafia
stoically facing the tide
3.
friend to pumice
compressed volcanic ash
barely strong enough to buff a callus
soon eroded featureless
puffy and pock-marked
cheekbones sinking
4.
my sweet red scoria
riddled with ellipsoidal vesicles
you're easy to chip as an enamelled fingernail
my fragmented ejecta
pretty glassy fragment
I so quickly forget you were forged from magma
5.
sure as quicksand
as Venice
as hopes
we're sinking
