Poem

Lioness by Michelle Rachels; for more information, visit https://www.etsy.com/shop/MichelleMariesArt
her bottom jaw unhinged by a hippo, the lioness rests beside a lake
by J. Hiba
pelt-limp in the grainy silt
i remember how he blossomed
the waterdiamonds bursting
about his parted mouth yellow teeth
angling from ridges of gum
the second he took hold of my jowl
i missed my sisters
now they are watching amidst the grass
the hippo having retired to his green cave
a punishment, sapped and sinking
i feel my wound inching
through transcendence the sting
tunneling from one ear to the other
a horizon of steady ringing that only
sleep can smother of course i know
what death is
why else had we taken on the hippo
the days have forged a cemetery of our bellies
had the blessing arrived we’d have savored all
of the beast’s wet rubber
we are not hippos
they waste whatever is snagged in their flapping
jaws stomp haphazardly into ponds then erupt
through the ceilings
their toothshards undisciplined
this one could not even kill me could not
tear clean the bone that swings beneath my head
in a sling of mud-flesh what
am i to do with it
in this home where decay extends
its talons across all failed pursuits
clamps gradually tighter unhampered by
names my sisters know theirs but
if i called for them
they would not approach
it is the least they can do
someone must pay
the skindebt
now is not the time to crave their
nuzzles the heft of their perfect skulls
fly-stippled coats stem whiskers
what looks like the sun kneeling
to kiss my snout orange
is just the spill of its evening sow
soon i can offer my lineature
the silt will weep over
every railing of my bones imagine
two villages sinking into each other’s arms
and like the roar that gathers
family this too will be heard
for miles
About J. Hiba
J. Hiba is a VONA/Voices fellow and holds a BFA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College. She currently works as an editorial assistant of economics and environmental science textbooks at W. W. Norton & Company. Her poetry has appeared in The Blueshift Journal and The Offing.
Leave a Reply