Brandon Blue

Winter 2023 | Poetry

Self-Portrait with Piercing

Change, or maybe, attempting to return

to a state of normalcy, is an uncomfortable,

familiar thing. It happens almost every day.

 

Just last week, it was so pleasurable to have

a stranger tickle, suck and twist my nipples

like my last lover did. My piercing came undone,

 

slipped out in ecstasy. I didn’t notice,

too caught up in a memory of a memory.

In that echo, the nipple began to whole itself,

 

became half crusted, reverting to its almost original

state, but fails, now a swollen thing. I took a spacer slowly

to the partial opening. Pushed, twisted, and breached

 

the opaque plug of pus. Now I, like when first pierced,

ache at the slightest touch of wind; a mark of the miracle:

to deny the body with a barb, so close to the heart, and live.

Brandon Blue is a black, queer poet, educator and MFA candidate at Arizona State University from the D(M)V. He is an assistant editor for Storm Cellar Magazine and his work has or will appear in Metro Weekly, Barzakh, [PANK], and more. His work is also featured in the Capital Pride Poem-a-Day event. His work has received the support of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. His chapbook, Snap.Shot, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. Keep up with his work at brandonbluepoet.com

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