my brain to my body

banish me. drain my blood-water

like sulfur-thick yolk from a cracked

egg. take the hammer daddy gave us,

his initials burned in the handle

like the thumbprint birthmark

on your thigh—our only birthrights—

and splinter this skull like he

taught us. he said, one day

the killing thing will get you,

too. he said, don't cry. he said,

you can't sweat it out. you must

pull fever-thread through your ears

until the riddle unravels. so do it.

violence me aseptic, dig

your fingernails in my flesh

so hard they snap off. please try

to purge every dead thing, even

if there'll be nothing of me left.

DEAN SYMMONDS is a queer poet from the South seeking zir BA in Creative Writing at Hollins University. Ze works as a Poetry Editor at Persephone's Daughters, and is an alumna of the Hollows Shout the Mountains Down Winter Tangerine workshop. Zir poems have been published in magazines like [empath], Gravel, The Album, and Crab Fat Magazine. You can find zem on Twitter @poetpersephone.