Car Horn, Siren Screech, BD Salvas

CW: stalking, gore

Twoheaded, a codependent predator,

The beast roars down the stillness.

Never heard of colorblindness,

only the distinction between

suffering and silence, and the natural beauty

of suburban streets at night.

Stares at my androgynous fur and pixie legs,

thinking of running me over, slows down

enough to pry open the anxiety

in my dead eyes, staring back at

A hundred and one tinted reflections.

The motorized chimera purrs out starved

Mating calls, envisions my limbs as

Cartoonish roadkill laced down the tarmac,

Drifter’s doodles on a geometry test

Overridden by swollen pen marks.

Oblong lassos in messy rows begging to be

Unkinked, create a pitiful flatline instead,

Easy as pressing a button.

---

BD Salvas is a Black poet from Southern California. She uses her experiences as a Black queer person to write about sex, love, trauma, and nature. When she isn’t writing poetry, BD is likely to be analyzing classical literature or watching anime. Twitter: @BethDimanche