Kyle Hemmings is the author of several chapbooks of poetry and prose: Avenue C, Cat People, and Anime Junkie (Scars Publications), and Tokyo Girls in Science Fiction (NAP). His latest e-books are You Never Die in Wholes from Good Story Press and The Truth about Onions from Good Samaritan. He has been published in Wigleaf, Storyglossia, Elimae, Match Book, This Zine Will Save Your Life, and other zines. Kyle lives and writes in New Jersey.

Wolf

She was into yoga
injected me with parables
about little girls
in gingerbread houses
then growing up to become homeless.
It always left me thinking about martyrs & bogatyrs.
I mean the way she sang to me
under pine trees & onion turrets,
near seaside vacation towns
owned by grandmothers who drew beasts
in vivid pastels. Her lips were perfect & pink.
During sex, she complained that I growled.


Private Parts

She tells me about the lovers who fade away
or keep coming for more. She jokes about homeless primates.
Some have rigid jaws during sex. One pretends he's seized
with Lorca's duende. Others claimed that after knowing her,
their private parts ached.

She tells me how at night, she removes her artificial vagina
& places it in a closed jar by the window. She wants to give it
space to dream. In the morning, she opens the jar.
She releases all the words from lovers who lost their passion,
who confessed secrets to dead ears.