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KIM COULL the swallowing beast 1. when you go after you have gone there is a swallowing beast when you go i fail in small increments the incredible shrinking woman i fade behind a newly formed hymen my cave blackens a fissure closes when you come back after you have come i hear you hammering calling my name sometimes this hymen is unbreakable my persistent caul 2. when you go after you have gone something is dislocated; the unnamed thing lurches toward me the swallowing beast set loose from the darkness smelling what i don’t know inside my fear i am a morsel on his web dew touched & shivering into mourning 3. after you go after you have gone vast landscapes cull me like an intruder so vast it is a swallowing your voice brings me to its gate your lick and wet conjures the latch your step towards me springs it open i fall through it like an escapee all the wild and empty boars tusked and snorting at my heels 4. after you go after you have gone my thoughts drip until i am a drowning night falls so gently and so long i cannot grasp it, it nestles into me a burrowing beast without consent intruder 5. the base load in the dusk is falling like Lucifer
KIM COULL
the swallowing beast