Krystal Languell

Blood Poem

Rats run like rabbits through a garden.
The entire house smells like blood.
Pests in the woodwork
waiting to scavenge medical waste.

The scent is heavy
like a good coat used as a blanket.
The air half-clotted and hot, rather
like a miscarriage I read about.

Shameful archive of old feelings
diffused into a poison mist.
When animals run it’s a pleasure to them.
They run from us when they’re intelligent.

A fumigation underway and I recall
yesterday the sky was very high.
Today an impersonation of somebody
who died makes people laugh.
A little laugh behind the bandages.

Krystal Languell is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Systems Thinking with Flowers, selected by Rae Armantrout as the winner of the first fonograf editions book contest and published in early 2022.