Mandy May: Womb

Photo: Joanna C. Valente

Ode to the womb

Your rust red bitten lip
of exalted exhaustion;

a rotten pomegranate
of spent sentiment--

oh crib of honey,
blood love emptied you,

you a clenched fist of seeds
ready to bleed,

bleed out.
Spill a river,

a hot flush of
lust fed breath,

and breathe the singing

of hollow red ridge
edged lips drowned

and starving.

Oh scarlet cradle,
dry out.

---

Mandy May is a Baltimore MD based writer and designer. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore and is currently working toward her Doctorate in Interaction & Information Design. She is the author of the poetry chapbook Magic: Moon Tides Sing Violet Petals (Babe Press) and co-curated Nasty: an anthology celebrating dark spirits (Babe Press). Her work can be found in Yes, Poetry; Ghost City Review; Moonchild Magazine; Breadcrumbs Magazine; The Light Ekphrastic; Baltimore Fishbowl; and elsewhere. She believes in ghosts, magic, and the splendor of a body failing. She has three cats.