Destroying Angels Are the Queen’s Pale Children

Robert Campbell

 

devoid of angle     bulbous and taut, they squat     beneath your uncle’s     sloped pecan tree     cajoling with lichen     in the worm moon’s month     what did you know     about poison poison     is just like us     if poison     had a face it would be        your face if poison had a name     it would be yours     the Queen has never killed a soul     once it rained aeroplankton     spores for weeks     no one could see for all     the fungal swarm     this is speaking tumors into flesh     we name mushrooms after their proprietary horrors     the Queen’s white ledger     build your house on the edge of a ravine     ride a horse into the sea         these are other fool crimes you know     isn’t poison just another word     for anti-human     unfit     her averse properties    plucking fruit from her white hand     animal-you felt pretty

 

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Robert Campbell is the author of the chapbook In the Herald of Improbable Misfortunes (Etchings Press, 2018). His poems have appeared in Tupelo Quarterly, Columbia Poetry Review, Ninth Letter, and many other journals. He holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Murray State University and an M.S. in Library Science from the University of Kentucky. Read more about him at robertjcampbell.wordpress.com.