{"id":302,"date":"2022-04-26T12:55:35","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T12:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/?p=302"},"modified":"2022-05-06T15:21:52","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T15:21:52","slug":"two-by-flower-conroy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/?p=302","title":{"rendered":"Two by Flower Conroy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Axolotl<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><em>The shell\u2019s tomb, the materials breathe.<\/em><br><em>The darkness of matter is bottomless.<\/em><br><em>&#8211;Aase Berg<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 45.5933%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 100%; text-align: justify;\">Perhaps in 1839 Johann Jakob von Tschudi meant to crown you&nbsp;<em>blunt<\/em>&nbsp;<em>mouth<\/em>.&nbsp;Did you know the symbol&nbsp;\u211e&nbsp;descends from Jupiter &amp; is abbr. Latin for&nbsp;<em>Recipe<\/em>&nbsp;which in turn meant&nbsp;<em>take thou<\/em>?&nbsp;Neoteny regenerator.&nbsp;Ideal human model.&nbsp;<em>Water monster.&nbsp;<\/em>Of tiger. Not apex predator cat or Victorian slang for prostitute\u2014but rarest salamander with poppy seed eyes.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>Found only in one complex of lakes,&nbsp;<\/em>one of which no longer exists. If noon\u2019s the vortex hour where&nbsp;Poseidon anagrammed into poisoned &amp; marsupial into I am a slurp then anagram reinvented itself into a rag man. Meanwhile you just float timorous carnivorous in your bath, sorta smiling\u2014as if you\u2019ve got this primitive streak business all figured out\u2014hypnotic buoy.&nbsp;You\u2019ve a Sea Monkey Cum Cabbage Patch Kid verisimilitude to you that makes me think of that extraterrestrial &amp; chimpanzee couple holding their hybrid alien-monkey (human) baby. (Where\u2019d you think we came from?) To\u2019ve syntax &amp; imagery work in equal measures. Like the spirit of the staircase glancing over its chilled shoulder. Or the threat display of a devil\u2019s flower mantis.&nbsp;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mushroom<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><em>So I\u2019ll be wed in the Church of the Holy<\/em><br><em>Incestuous Mushroom?<\/em><br><em>&#8211;Silvia Moreno-Garcia<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 45.2409%; height: 344px;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"height: 344px;\">\n<td style=\"width: 100%; text-align: justify; height: 344px;\"><em>To detect such designs, however, is not necessarily to understand them.<\/em> Why do we prize rarity &amp; not its cousin, deformity? The arbitrary unmasked is the occult science of aesthetics. Filament to stitch the tear in heaven shut. Sometimes the only way to please a deity is disbelief. For you breathe, slip of chromosome, chosen one, you serve as <em>example of the impossible made possible\u00a0<\/em>stepping into the god particle light. I speak of the uncanny valley, wheat cake &amp; whelk brewing between your must reeking pages\u2014wattle. Don\u2019t stew. Rake the leaves off the concrete sidewalk so the pathways from the saber-toothed to the throat radiate. Unencumbered usher us slightly wounded toward wreckage uncalled-for. How to cope\u2014this daily barrenness, its hot polish?\u00a0\u00a0I bleed you gill-side on a piece of paper; white spore print telltale sign you\u2019ll kill me. Destroying Angel, it\u2019s best to leave you unmolested.\u00a0 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>\u00a0________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>LGBTQ+ artist, NEA and MacDowell Fellow, and former Key West Poet Laureate, Flower Conroy\u2019s the author of <\/em>Snake Breaking Medusa Disorder <em>(winner of the NFSPS&#8217;s Stevens Manuscript Prize), <\/em>A Sentimental Hairpin<em> (a Small Press Distribution bestseller), and <\/em>Greenest Grass (or You Can\u2019t Keep Killing Yourself &amp; Not Expect to Die)<em> (winner of the Blue Lynx Poetry prize, forthcoming 2022). Her\/their poetry has appeared in <\/em>American Poetry Review<em>, <\/em>American Literary Review<em>, <\/em>New England Review<em>, <\/em>Prairie Schooner,<em> and others.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Axolotl The shell\u2019s tomb, the materials breathe.The darkness of matter is bottomless.&#8211;Aase Berg Perhaps in 1839 Johann Jakob von Tschudi meant to crown you&nbsp;blunt&nbsp;mouth.&nbsp;Did you <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/?p=302\" title=\"Two by Flower Conroy\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":411,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions\/411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}