by Bronte Billings
a mattress sews your hands
into the seam
no sleeping keep sores
fresh peachy bleed
the Moon is always heavy
yellow and full of faces
talking craters chew out
pillows
sunken heavy resting
roll over in stuffing
stuffed stitching skin feels
fire cold in-between spinal cords
grinding bone on gravel
there is chatter quiet mouth
fuzz a mouse lives hungry dry
all the insides are eaten out
all the out stays out
no more swallowing
a mattress spits
broken springs to be everything
shreds go lily damp
white under bottom sole
no far walking out breathes
dirty sink in sink in sink in to eye wide
scissors to
thread spooling
Bronte Billings is a third year MFA candidate for the NEOMFA. She is a recipient of the 2015 & 2016 Academy of American Poets Prize and recent recipient of the 2017 Leonard Trawick Award. Bronte has work forthcoming in Bone Bouquet. Born and glued to Ohio, Bronte enjoys the alliteration of her own name, binge writing, and the full moon at 2am.