by Jodie Filan
the quarantined & the corona flowers
the sickness flowers.
death looms
over every beautiful
thing. homes overgrow
sprouting seeds
drifting with wind
over fields.
new flowers arise
germinating beautiful petals
but weak stems –-
eradication smells each
flower & watches
their lungs wither.
they fall: two, seven, thirteen.
*
the plague
is pollinating the air.
each toxic breath
determines
a second-guessed inhale.
scent breaches the nostrils,
veering past sinuses.
it disintegrates body
into mulch,
rooting fear deeper
within our skin –-
a tattoo of endangerment.
*
corpses lie
in mass graves,
the hillsides bed
unnamed faces.
mouths hang open
like caverns,
eyes glisten
like poorly formed
diamonds.
their fingers count the hours
since the outbreak.
soon bones
will build caskets.
*
i want to incubate the infected
& settle them in vases.
present each one a new alias.
represent them as beautiful
instead of cursed & dying.
have them sat in art studios
painted on canvasses.
*
his lungs filled
& he drowned
lying in the hospital bed.
the blood
seeped out
the broken aquarium
of his mouth.
the doctors turned their faces down
& collected each medical tool
like a dead fish.
john compton is a 33 year old poet who lives in kentucky. his poetry resides in his chest like many hearts & they bloom like vigorously infectious wild flowers. he has published 1 book and 4 chapbooks: trainride elsewhere (august 2016) from Pressed Wafer; that moan like a saxophone (december 2016); ampersand (march 2019) from Plan B Press; a child growing wild inside the mothering womb (ghost city press; 2020); burning his matchstick fingers his hair went up like a wick (dark hearts press; 2020)
Jodie Filan is an artist in Saskatoon, born and raised. She has been published in RAR, Dark Ink press, Buddy Lit Zone, *82 Review, Aesthetica (Europe), Pithead Chapel, Nunum, Riza Press, Penultimate Peanut, unstamatic, The Raw Art Review (Spring 2019), High Shelf Press, Please See Me, among others . Recently Ms Filan also placed 6th in Fusion arts 4th annual B+W competition (May 2019) www.facebook.com/jodiefilanyxe