YOU’RE ONLY HUMAN WHEN SOMEONE IS LOOKING

Some of the women in town
thought Mary ought to be punished.
Her belly grew to a hearse.

She prayed for a sailboat
to carry her uterus on a milk sea.
Dragonflies swarmed her flamingo-pink

plumage. She watched
boys shred guitars. May
the distortion mince all
the tired women

inside her. A doctor suggested
lime in tea—an exorcise. May she
shoot wind to hear grass buzz,
to know which she is sprouting
inside her.

__

Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York. They are the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014), The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press, 2015), Marys of the Sea (2016, ELJ Publications) & Xenos (2016, Agape Editions). Joanna received an MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College, and is also the founder of Yes, Poetry, as well as the managing editor for Civil Coping Mechanisms and Luna Luna Magazine.