“Lemon Bake” & “On the Q Train Towards Stillwell”
by Paula Gil-Ordoñez Gomez
Lemon Bake
You scrub salt on my wounds
porous & fleshy freshly peeled
lemon grated to silky little
playthings I am a cast iron lady
numb to acidity & blood Over
molted citrus scones I tell you
maybe one day I will become
a writer & drown my seeds to sow
I pay for my sins in cold hard cash
& this month’s utility debt I’m
hardened by low light stares &
firm handshakes You make me
nervous sometimes when your
image is hazy in my dislocated
dissociation I make out your
eyes piercing blue surrounded
by glass pebbles & naked shores
I’m living in my head Can I ask
have you considered a lobotomy
for two My fingertips are burns
seeking refuge in your hollow
lips Rind remnants stick from
tongue in cheek You fucking
proudly hate my jokes
On the Q Train Towards Stillwell
Strangers are drowning
in pages and sounds, choking
on others’ misery, gasping
preoccupy me. I’ve sketched the crux
of fear, gashing
new wounds. Tonight’s fester is grief
of losing myself, staring
into underground glass, are those my eyes
and why— what would happen
if I scratched them
out— would my fingernails
withstand? I’m wading, watching
a brunette boy in the diagonal
seat pulling out Kafka. I have never read
Metamorphosis, but I’m heaving
in temporal decline, nostalgic for golden age.
Paula Gil-Ordoñez Gomez is a Latina poet residing in New York City. She works in narrative strategy at a social impact agency, and as Social Media & Membership Manager for Brooklyn Poets. Her work has been published in Fahmidan Journal, Wilderness House Literary Review, and the Tufts Observer. Paula tweets @paulagilordonez. Find more of her writing at www.paulagilordonezgomez.com.
Hannah Cranna is a baker, aviculturist, and apothecary artist, living again in Connecticut.
