Marta Núñez Pouzols

Evil Wedding

The face seen by the squid reader
is that of a weeping bride
uphill handtied
towards the summit
where a moss and bone altar
hovers over sleep paralysis

under a purple frankincense canopy
smoke is a ghost’s cast and blades
shrill up the fossilized mound

I have been grieving my whole life

As centerpiece
scorched tree claws
clinging to lightning past
and a dog fennel wreath
seasons of interrupted portal

If only I had never met you

The eclipse is miscalculated
setting off a chain of moon fires
the sphere controllers asleep from
centuries’ exhaustion

“Unacceptable!”
yells the groom at the sky
metallic voice through the keys
of his fanged demon helmet

We are losing light

Celestial flames reflected on a skull’s shades
the bride is a shaking heap of sobs
clutching crisis curls
“Will you calm down for fuck’s sake”

I will only calm down when I piss and shit on your grave

Her voice echoes for miles
a lark lets out a nervous giggle
“I understand” the groom musters
Theremin waves strangle the easy bird
“Now we feast”

The Bad Queen

“He who buries a secret buries himself with it. A
secret is a grave.”
–Gaston Bachelard

Key to the killed
wives chamber
fell on the puddle
Days scrubbing
a small
stained key

Never satisfied with a first choice,
You decided
Waited til everyone settles,
You moved

Before the beard comes—

but stain can’t be removed
key’s the one bleeding
key’s learned to bleed

So when the moon is in Gemini
truth abandons her children: stories

Joins a carnival instead

Our book has
two words for blood:

one for blood inside the body
one for blood outside of it

Sometimes I, flesh from your flesh,
others
his master’s voice

Blood rituals
replace circulation
with the air
trees of language

Our book has
fear and curiosity
chariot dogging
babyface and heels
a dancing curse

Blood controls:
what’s a boar’s heart
in a heart’s box?

I was changing your shit bag
and you called me cinderella
head and tale collapsed

Us walking
among the spite of ruins

Learn more about these poems.


Marta Núñez Pouzols is a writer and translator from Andalusia, Spain. She has lived in North Carolina since 2008. Together with Argentine poet Maia Morosano, she co-authored the bilingual collection of poems Pronombres siderales/Starry Selves (Turba, 2019). Her poems can be found in Telegráfica, Lute & Drum, Works & Days, and DREGINALD, among others. Marta co-curates the reading series Paradiso and organizes Moon Palace, a horizontal writers’ workshop in Durham, NC. She also writes critical pieces and reviews on film and sound. Learn more: www.martanunezpouzols.com