Perpetual Motion Machine
1. In the midst of the turmoil today is our day of rest (Monday.
Todo.)
2. They offer me. peace? Scrub the toilets and the showers
3. At whose expense? Ignore the menstrual pain
4. As if adding a day to a calendar changes much of anything It should have
5. It’s a sweet gesture for what it’s worth but that’s not much gone away by now
6. What would I even do with free time if I had it right?
7. Besides mending the headache that’s camped inside my cranium for over a year
God
I wish
Or seeing a doctor to find a root cause for my womb’s decision to turn into a coffin
God.
8. If only I could afford to take the day off I could afford painkillers.
This day of rest might actually mean something to me. If only I could breathe
The reality is: you already need a certain amount of privilege for taking time to tend to your overworked body and mind to be an option Without fear of death deadlines
The truth is
9. The more it hurts the less we can afford to deal with it
The wearier our bones the less we’re allowed to tend to them And the paychecks
The closer we are to running ourselves ragged the more we have to keep fagging to keep from thirsting to death
Drinking birds pecking the water and drowning in necessities
That never come.
God, I wish I could rest in peace.
10. Why is the black body a perpetual motion machine?
Checking Out Early
If I had to check out this early
I would have liked to die young and beautiful
Like a heroine from a movie
Instead of just young
With a womb that smells like a corpse
And a body that feels like one
Hell in my Womb (Hembras Ardientes)
No naci nada
I can’t-
Molten magma
Pinned by twisted reality
Tangled in the sweaty sheets
Como la gravedad
I lay writhing on the floor Quiet with agony
Hell is in my womb.
And the suffering-
for what purpose?
Ahogada por el fuego y el rocío
The sweetness all aflame I receive no bundle of joy
Pillars of life cave in torre de dominos
and pin me beneath their ruins
I vomit into the same sink that holds me upright
Rather than shattering against the tile
Lo siento
No puedo evitarlo
Como es la vida
And how it must be-
Me esposa a la suffrimente
Ser mujer y esposa
I’m waterboarded beneath the pressure
And fire on the inside
Mortal lava
Pours from this fragile vessel that I am
Fight it or not
And I have no strength left
Hembras ardientes
Mi cuerpo hay un infierno
I suffocate
Weeping steaming tears
Fire in my throat
Que es la feminidad
But this bitter water in my mouth choking on femininity
Perhaps I’m being punished or maybe
Todas estamos malditas
And to be female is to burn
RED
Hembras ardientes
Burning embers
I bleed fire
