Six Poems - Bernadette Bowen

WE ARE ALL SURFACES IN THE ENVIRUSMENT

My love 
Hangs around 
Like mold.

I Infiltrate 
Your porous 
Wood

Sink into 
Your 
Remembrains.

—-

Don’t 
Mind me…

…Just evading

Lapses to 
Rid your 
Infrastructure 
Of me;

Fortifying 
Myself 
—Stronger 
Than ever 
Inside You.

—-

I am the 
Twenty-percent 
That know 
How to 
Survive

Your vinegar.

—-

Undetected 
I cunningly curb 
Your interest

Til you’re

Cupping at 
The seems.

—-

Curve for me.

Show me 
How 
Your heat

That 
Grows me

Cannot 
Contain 
Itself there

Inside your 
Surfaces.

—-

Allow me 
To snake 
Through 
your veins

Like water;

Weaving 
Through 
Your textures,

Tainting Your 
Would boreds,

Inking them 
With life.

—-

Isn’t it 
All So 
Exhilarating—

—How Even 
My most 
Toxic 
Release of 
Spores

beats 
The drone 
Of your

Tidy 
Polished 
Home. 

I HAVE BEEN WADING

On the 
Ocean of 
Missing you 
For So Long,

I’m getting 
Scurvy 
Over here.

—-

I have the 
Cabin Fever of 
Missing you.

—-

The Creatures 
Of us

Live on in the 
Deepest parts 
Of my memorseas.

Not a day 
Goes by

I don’t 
Hold my breath 
To Dive back in 
And pull them out;

Basking them 
in the sun 
Of mynd’s surface.

—-

Our sea monsters 
Shine brightly when 
Allowed in daylight.

—-

I’m keeping 
The map;

Charting course 
To our 
Buried treasures.

I haven’t 
Forgotten 
Where 
X marked

Our spots———- 
—So Many Times.

BALDILOCKS BUMBLER VIRTUOSO

Watch me 
Blow thought 
Bubbles into our 
Re-space-o-ship.

—-

Since You Shut 
Your Electricity off,

The pixels of me 
Still spend all their

Tokens and free time 
Grinding, Bouncing, & 
Reflecting in Our lights.

—-

A play palace 
Despised, I

~backstroke~in the 
____ball pit____Full 
———Of our gazes 
——into each other.

—-

Though you stopped 
Paying admission,

The bare moments 
of us—-Still Dance

|||Encased||| in their 
<<<>>>
<<<>>>

[Turns out,

This space was 
Always 
self-sufficient].

The show 
Must Go On.

I'M HERE TO(O)

Fetishize 
The face.

Face it,

I do not 
Miss 
Any–

-But 
Yours.

—

Take off 
That mask

Slowly 
For me.

No need 
To be Shy 
Or coy,

I know 
What’s under 
There.

I’ve seen it 
All 
Before.

—

Show me 
Again

How you 
You.

It’s been 
So long

Since 
Anyone 
Worth 
Looking 
At

Has Looked 
At me

Physically,

Viscerally,

in My 
Direction.

—-

Before our 

Total Dark

I mourned 
Our sight loss

Like 
I had

My childhood, 
Dog.

I knew 
We 
Were going,

So I 
read books

In place 
Of 
Your face

To Supplant 
Our Deterioration.

I Wrapped myself 
In The Comfort 
Of fiction,

Between covers 
and frayed spines.

—

Shipping 
Is delayed

On shared 
smirks

In the 
Unfor-see-me-able 
Future.

—

In this 
Envirusment,

We are

Flesh and 
[Thus,] 
Fresh Out

of 
Knowing 
Glances.

—

I see now,

There is no way 
To Properly grieve 
the Relishment

of your 
Idiosyncrasies,

As we are,

Relegated 

To only 
A Past-time.

YOU WERE NOT ROUTINE DENTAL WORK

The worst Part 
of losing you 
is that _________ 
___________ 
_____________.

—-

Not some 
Superficial filling 
I could replace.

You were that 
Real enamel Deal.

—-

Over the years, 
I’d developed 
Quite the sweet 
Tooth; taking 
Bigger Bites than 
I Could chew.

—-

I ached from 
Your erosion 
For Months;

Numbing myself 
Preemptively 
For Your extraction.

—-

You Didn’t 
leave a 
minor cavity.

I required 
A full-blown 
root canal.

My nerves laid raw in 
the deepest parts of 
me from your loss.

—-

You were ripped 
from my mouth 
and placed back 
into that of another.

I have 
No right 
to be sad

Only sad writes; 
Gumming at 
Our leftovers.

THE BABY

Words in 
My brain 
Are crying 
Out of me.

They say 
It’s time 
For them

To be 
Birthed 
Out from 
My Mental 
Holes &

Into the 
—World.

—-

Words 
Have no 
Need for

Sucking 
Their 
Thumbs

To self- 
Soothe.

They 
Are the 
Food & 
The Shit,

& We—-Are 
The Worms.