Excerpt from Sonnets II
by Karina Bush
The Messenger
The atoms of the sun and the water
And my body move in light’s intercourse
A bird lands on the water’s edge, in reach
Throws his head back, opens his flashing wings
The sun has sewn gems of light through his skin
He dips his beak into the water—drinks
Turns to me with eyes black as history
And the juice makes his throat beat, and it throbs
And the juice runs down the definition
Of his chest, and it runs between his legs
And down one pigeon thigh, and I wonder
What he has—I think about catching him
And spreading open his little wet legs
Touch, even suckle, until I too flash
Very Very Sleepy
The summer land swells with fertility
I take off my dress, I lay on the grass
I show them my body, I summon it
The cattle stir, lift their heads, then drop them
Again—sleepy, very very sleepy...
The bull lumbers over and it prods hard
I drop deeper, the wide tongue in my mouth
It mounts in urgency, I am in heat
So big it hits my heart, pains in my chest
We rouse the others, their bloodshot eyes fixed
The wet chins drip and the hairy legs shake
White light breaks through the trees and down the trunks
And white light slowly runs all over me
Newly jewelled in sunbeams and white seeds
The Milky Flowerboy
I suck him to me up through a pink straw
He picks the white flowers, his hands are full
Squeezes the milk, leaves a trail behind him
The twisting mass of the Sun’s Christ-less sky
Horned plaything, the Sun on his burning back
His lovesickness and his downcast lulled head
He is damp with the lower emotions
His stricken echoes come from the valley
It is dismal shit I already know
How his back hurts and so does his conscience
Like he is some kind of upstanding thing
How the white flowers represent his love
And he cries that it's hard to cheat his wife
And he offends me with his monkey guilt
BIO: Karina Bush is an Irish writer and artist who lives in Italy. She is the author of five books with the most recent being the controversial novella FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION SLUT. Karina’s work has also been featured by Tangerine Press, the LA Review of Books, Akashic Books, Fugitives & Futurists, the International Poetry Studies Institute, etc. She is also CEO of DeepSNAKES, the world’s only AI literary platform. Visit: karinabush.com for more.