corpse of an artist

 

corpse of an artist

 

see my warm, rancid flesh splash

against summer tide’s white tile.        

            watch as i hold my head between my fingers

            and squish as hard as i can.

see the swarm of locusts erupt

from the gape of my mouth,

            a puff of dust from a journal

long shelved, since forgotten.

watch me step on my teeth until the

bottoms of my feet sprout cavities

            and infection kisses the nape

            of my decaying desires.

                         

watch me rot from the inside out.

 

  

Samantha Paige Maskell

 

  

Samantha Paige Maskell is a student of several years and a poet of many more. Their work fiercely examines their experiences with sexuality and mental illness, considering the details of sapphism and depression with words of gentle discomfort and warm repose. They published their first collection, laden with rust, in 2017 with Createspace Independent Publishing. They are forever grateful to their mother, their father, the friends that shaped them and the lovers that broke them so they could put themselves back together through words.