Two Poems by hannah buonaguro

my mouth, too
_______wide open
and yet my
tongue tied

droplets of water on
_______________ deleuze

______________________ delusion

i swallow you whole
i am on- _____ to you
and i like to take in the (pause of your) sentiment

then i’m thinking of blood baths
of different sorts
i will slip into the water
my blood spilling out of me
______________ surrounding me

i am  bathing in
______ a symbol of my unborn babies

i savor these moments, these types of somatics,
bodily poetry
______ you should all stop asking me
______ when this will change

(a woman’s blood, her womb, her pleasures and pains
______ are none of your business
______ unless she wants to tell you

and yet
you’ve made it so
that it is so—
turned everything into business (as usual))

just please remember: there is no season for our demands
i am doing this for a reason

it has to come first
______________ i have to
______________ it’s the only way,
______________ somehow

then i’m thinking about:

fish laws
the meanings of the word “spent”
how people can be so beautiful
refering to something like a recipe
ecology/genocide
response-ability

i haven’t known what to say
in years
_______ up there, it was a
_______ little different (i don’t want to
_______ give a place too much)

where in the
_______ actual
_______ world…?

[i heard them screaming and you did, too, and i had to escape as fast as i could and you did,
too; we practically flew out the back door and i wailed into leaves and we both left and i
refused to go back for over a year, now pieces of this reality become part of dreams; and you,
you got so far away]

so
called
some
one
good
night
you
were
there
all
along i waited into
waded in to you, oh, you,
oh dear, dear
touch / pause

re-hash
re/kind(le)

what these relations are/what are these relations

for now there’s nothing else

_______ you were my picture
_______ and i was yours

may poem

filmy vision
we have been welding and wielding:
an idea of a
new type of colony

one that is not
at all
a colony in the usual sense

not colonized—
de-colonized, in fact

with
lighter
longer
days
for all

touch as an important moment
______________________________ momentum

some freedom
to keep some

emphasis on life and openness

not punishment not penalty not confinement not solitary for days and weeks and years and
decades not servitude not torture not abuse not free or low-paid labor

not lack of fresh air not lack of good food not lack of exercise not lack of medication not lack of
proper care not lack of respect not lack of visiting rights not lack of voting rights not lack of
human rights

not victim-blaming or shaming not criminal-blaming or shaming not this innocent or guilty not
treated worse in the eyes of the law which is blind to its own deep fault lines and measures

how do we reset?

let’s weld this
this idea
rhythmically
steadily;
it is about
time

hannah buonaguro

hannah buonaguro (b 1991) is a poet and artist who lives by the sea and hosts reading and performance events in her home. she also hosts a monthly restaurant called ZAX in collaboration with Will Stewart. she has published two collections of poetry: time that does not tick and i can hear you all the way from today .