be prepared to freeze scout
master says or you might not survive
beyond us mist crawls along the skin
of a pond he says to breathe it in
big breaths like a man and taste
the fresh cuts it leaves along the inside
of your throat let your body quiver
as your blood bleaches the fine air red
i stand frozen beside the master my throat
yoked tight within his grasp a firm man’s hand
i feel his fingers crawl inside my mouth
and slouch down through the blood
he fingers the folds and they peel back
leading him deeper and deeper down
i do not know who dragged us under
the water i cannot tell my flesh from his own
i try to scream but men only
jump to save little girls from drowning
looking up at the pond i wonder if water
freezes beneath the surface or just on top
Jennessa Hester is a transgender writer and scholar based in Texas. She is a Lambda Literary Fellow and has been a finalist for the Rhysling Award and Prufer Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Strange Horizons, Bellingham Review, Cream City Review, HAD, and elsewhere. WEB
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