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.