Dayna Patterson
sky leviathan
blob body
extraterrestre
medusa bell escaped from ocean prison
how?
hollow color
of afterbirth
ribbed skin
murderous moon
un monstre sinking seeks
our children our crops
we don’t need another king
to crumb us
strike the church bell donnez l’alarme
aux armes
citoyens,
grab your pitchforks scythes muskets powder horns
call out the hounds
slit bulbous belly, slash
skin-silk through
harpoon
its vacuous rubber stomach don’t
inhale its last turpentine gasp
Il est mort, enfin
Let the beast rot in the sun
***
Dayna Patterson is the author of Titania in Yellow (Porkbelly Press, 2019) and If Mother Braids a Waterfall (Signature Books, 2020). Her creative work has appeared recently in AGNI, Passages North, and POETRY, among others. She is the founding editor-in-chief of Psaltery & Lyre and a co-editor of Dove Song: Heavenly Mother in Mormon Poetry.