An independent, ad-free leftist magazine of critical essays, poetry, fiction, and art.

body modding at the Schaumburg Claire’s

The way his name suggests a wound. Ritualistic self mutilation. St. Sebastian. Penetration. Induced vomiting and martyrdom. Dentistry. Bleeding your mouth like nuclear pennies. How you roll it around. Sieve it between your teeth. Suck from it all tannins and meaning. Pierces your tendency to touch things you ought not. Fire cracker. Black snake. Broken mirror. Long baths in a needle filled river. Snapping lip rings off the mouths of anorexic oysters. This nail gun of love punching a smooth circle through your thinnest parts. No exit wounds without promise of re-entry.

 


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