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
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