WHO IS THIS GOOSE EATING GOOSE?

wherever I am flesh / I am gooseflesh.

wherever I am flesh
I am gooseflesh. the first Honk:

                                       ugly daughter
remains ugly daughter.

by accident I was born with gizzard
where I should have cloaca. all I have done

my whole life
is learn to be what I am—

crack rotting cricketshell
to lick at the

sick, sweet, spoiled body and
fuck rocks. where do I abandon

this orphan heart,
tumorous as an oil spill?

if I have children they will come out
half-chewed.

About the author

Vanessa Deering is an Eritrean-American and African-American poet, playwright, and artist from Los Angeles, CA. Her work has been recognized by the Ilona Karmel Writing Prizes and the Santa Monica College Festival of Ten Minute Plays. She is an undergraduate student at MIT.