Today's poem is by Conan Tan

Severance
       

I think I have a cordyceps heart.
I can't tell you how it        tastes or what colours
                it feeds on. But some nights,        I feel it
                                curl up into the shell
        of a garden snail. And it's smooth
                        like freshly waxed grass. Maybe it'll be fun
to squash it.                        Make it pumpkin.
Give it a season to live in.                      I want it to grow
        out of my eyes.                              Make me a mushroom Medusa.
                Make me swallow the host
                                    like herbal chicken soup.                 I'm nastier
than you think.         I can snip off my arm
            the way an ant                 snips off its own head,
a popping
                tropical drink,         and in seconds,
                                                  I can kill a whole colony
                                                          including myself.

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Copyright © 2024 Conan Tan All rights reserved
from Exposed Bone
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission