
POEM
reality, in bloom.
with this chest unviable, & this bite unclenched,
i cinch my innards & threaten to strangle my spirit.
i bury bees in sand & wonder aloud if it is
sadistic to starve flowers of water only to
witness them
stand out of death.
i am tired of extracting parts of
myself to stay sane, but would
pluck every rib to see
myself whole.
*Originally published in Maudlin House
Annette Covrigaru is a gay/bigender American-Israeli writer based in Brooklyn, N.Y. They were a Lambda Literary Emerging LGBTQ Voices nonfiction fellow and writer-in-residence in 2014 and 2017, respectively. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Entropy, Cosmonauts Avenue, Hobart, and FIVE:2:ONE, among others, and is collected at www.annettecovrigaru.com.