TWO POEMS by NAT RAUM
hell froze over
and i left you there; no one loved you
like i loved you and then you snuffed
the flame. i will die before you benefit
from my body’s meager heat, tentative
but flickering nonetheless. circumstance
dictated i retreat from my worship
and seek shelter within you instead—naive
of me to think i ever could. you promised
care and retreated when i cried i need you
like a tree frog’s skin needs water, too hard
to shape something resembling empathy
with fists so tightly clenched. i know
you are not the devil; there is good here
we can lay to rest gently among the smoldering
coals. but i still commit to ice as it forms
itself within the gaps you left. it’s best
for all of this to remain dormant.
love poem with teeth
i am a creature worthy of no introduction. a string
of men would have you believe this is objective truth
but i know better. my body uses silence like a salve
to blot out what really happens behind bedroom doors.
now, i can no longer treat love like the answer,
but that does not mean excision—these stubborn molars
can be salvaged, i insist. i play gauze pop
in the shower and brush conditioner through wet hair.
i allow myself an afternoon passed with rolled tips
between crooked incisors, then buy my friends
a round of beers. the urgency leaves my body
as not a flood, but something softer. something
that dissolves into the night where terrors once
stacked, barricaded me from myself. maybe i can be loved.
nat raum is actually five genders in a trenchcoat; it's a miracle they learned to write. Find them online at natraum.com and on most social media @gr8earlofhell.