WATER SIGNS ❋ Ivanna Baranova

i don’t want to mention death
any more than we do the weather

whatever daily obituaries
and fahrenheit levels
consume us both

our bras cupping
pools of sweat

no matter the weather
no matter the month

when the temperature drops we go
coffin shopping at the colour house

we cruise control the drive home
so to sidewalk stare at the faces

that house the eyes of the expressions
of the people who do not love us now
didn’t love us then

and never will

because we don’t know any better
we chalk phenomenological consequence
up to the effects of obligation

conflate all intersectional theory
with lawlessness

proselytize lazy idioms
about astrology and the occult

when i joke about being garbage
it is because i am a joke about being garbage
and garbage is as garbage does as garbage does

isn’t it amazing

the pithy fuckery
of the one-two conflation
to which i subject you

to make you
to make you want me
to make you want to touch me

wanting is the melting of the ego
wanting is the witnessing of melting
melting can be spontaneous and a-romantic
can tend to occur during the onset of any cycle

menstrual
psychiatric
or otherwise

just so you know:
when i want something
i ask for it

i never ask for you