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A TRACEABLE HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

3/21/2019

 
                 by Duncan Slagle 

begins with Cain
& Abel winding
blood-ways out
of the womb.

In the garden
birds scythe the air
harvesting cruelty. Mechanics
rewired for an age
in which men make death
for good stories.

I know I am my father’s
appellation, shocked wide
awake by the grey bath-
water, instructed to scrub
the wings of vultures clean.

I face the men who rename
already-named animals & leave
an ark, spinning to splinters
inside this fear.

I pulled weeds
with my feet
the day my father
slapped me so hard
my lip split, jeweling
like a pomegranate.

That fruit which ruined
a bloodline, filling the mouth
of Eve, gums sugar-stung, body
gowned in empire, burying heirs.
Her first son laying his hands
on another’s throat.

I savor the pith
to start, flinching
sobs like clockwork.
My clotting eyes—    
sockets glossed with rage
to notice: At the end
of it all, one brother laughs
while the other picks teeth
from the dirt.








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Duncan Slagle is a queer poet and performer from Alaska & then Minnesota. Duncan is the author of FATHER HUNT (L'Éphémère Review) & currently attends the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a First Wave Scholar studying Ancient Greek, Latin, and Creative Writing. The winner of the 2018 Crab Creek Review Poetry Prize, the 2018 Mikrokosmos Poetry Prize, and a 2018 Best of the Net nominee, more of Duncan's work can be found online at duncanslagle.com. 

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