Two Poems by Joe Amaral

Queen of Carcasses

 

Scurry little princess

Pink and pretty

Entitled with money

See-through fragile tutu

 

So high and mighty

Sitting properly upon

Your cardboard throne

Scepter of false gold

Burger joint crown

Bejeweled by crayon

 

Revolt ye underling servants

Jester, serf, lady-in-waiting

Feast on the bones of

The rich bourgeois

 

Off with their heads

 

Human Houseplant

 

Lines scar

thin paper pastures

 

Wriggle like river etched landscapes

as the drizzle of a tear sleds off my cheek

 

Following unknown gravity along

mountainous paths

 

Demon-hearted volcano funnels

I quit the upward climb

 

My soulflower wilted, drowned via

the watery entrapment of a glass vase

 

Clear-viewed for all to observe my opaque demise

 

Clipped trees bow their heads in sympathy,

a synchronicity of sobs and sawn timber

 

I peer out my prison at the ordinary faces

Curious and confused, ignorant but sad

 

Their fear resides in the perfume my petals echo

 

Strangely quixotic, old intoxications

I let my pieces droop off

 

One by one

 

Knowing freedom is an outdoor burial

 

Joe Amaral is a paramedic who spends most his time spelunking around the California central coast, though he is an OG raised in the San Francisco East Bay Area. His poetry and short stories have appeared in many literary journals and print anthologies, including A Handful of Dust, amphibi.us, Carcinogenic Poetry, Certain Circuits, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Eclectic Flash, RED OCHRE LiT, and Underground Voices. He also has pieces published internationally via Decanto Magazine, DIOGEN, Litro, and Taj Mahal Review.