This next poem is the title poem of the collection.
And this came to fruition after I did a lot of weird Wikipedia
rabbit hole searches.
I started to become really interested
in all the different abortion techniques throughout history,
and so this is what came about.
"Lessons on Expulsion."
"I discipline my waist and lean against the heated coconut.
The day is gray as a face, and my sin
clear as the hoofmarks in the carmine.
What is God to me but an open-mouthed stranger?
I stepped across a viper and still the forked tongue
flickers in my hollow.
You see, my lust will never know death nor harvest--
elixir of hellbore, colocynth, salt, stick, and mouse shit.
I run in circles and bathe in the hateful river.
This grain, this wild greedy thing
he's left me plumping so paltry and mulish.
Mercury, mandrake-- I am only a girl
with this brilliant black nest of eagerness.
Over and over, my mother calls to me, my name
a wreckless ribbon in the gloaming.
When the clouds part like stupid lovers, I close my eyes
and press myself against the eucalyptus tree.
I let the leeches crawl until nightfall."