Charlotte Van den Broeck

hiss

it’s late and the hiss
stops the woman in her tracks

the hiss spies her out, assesses
the woman as suitable

under her large coat, sniping
diminutives and superlatives

diminutive diminutive superlative
furious when the woman doesn’t say anything

hissing harsher coming closer
tip of his tongue point of his knife slit

more furious still
can’t she even smile

pushing up against the crush barrier
of his teeth the hiss rubs

up against the bars until
excitement smothers

the hiss in his mouth
silenced through street after street

until the woman’s home knowing
she’s shadowed still


*

on the reef

an eagle ray swims
through an obstacle course of lavender applicators

a turtle gets tangled in a tampon string
dragging itself along until the end like a condemned criminal
with an absorbent ball and chain, on shore
a woman is bleeding again

down there on the reef
tattered reinforcing mesh pinions the coral skeleton

the coppery red
fades from
her paling branches


*

on the pond

two red-eared sliders
who dumped them here

the sunning female
absorbs the warmth
receptively cupping and stretching
her skin to the light

nearby a male
swollen throat bulging
with a bounty of worms and water plants
attracts her attention

she opens a pleat of skin on the side of her head
revealing her bright red spot, her marking, this
is the overture

she sets off slowly
below the bobbing edge of her carapace
her cloaca heaves

circumstances dictate the male gaze
because it’s May

and the park lush around the pond
blue water-speedwell in flower
corolla open for fertilisation

see her
exotic
congener

under the lilac petals, tense
and blue-veined, roguish terrapin hips
dewdrops trembling on a bract

resolute and reckless
the male follows, not stumbling
over the pennywort runners

lost in the train of the yellow lines
on her buttocks, her thighs, the teasing
of the bobbing shell an unmistakable
invitation to follow

past the arum lily
through the rampant sweet flag
between the spadices, yellowish green
rising to the occasion

closer and closer
cautiously
from a premonition
because at the sound of footsteps
it’s always best to
the female looks back

male thinks, ‘to look
is to want’, imagines
he has every right and shows the bright
red throbbing spot on his head too

unmoving


this is where the courtship begins
this is where he spreads his claws

slowly enough
his front leg
scratches

the sand, the scratched lines
extend as trembling through her throat
– the spot flushes deeper, fuller, redder

– ashamed
she shoots off, down the sloping
bank and into the water

as if it’s been decided
the male dives after her
to the bottom of the pond

somewhat hindered
by the weight of his shell

while she swims in a twirling dance
manoeuvring nimbly
focussed on escape

until in one of her twirls he
with a rough thrust of his jaws
hits the back of her shell – ow

the male takes advantage of the pain
to stretch out his front legs
spread his fluttering claws

feathering, electric like the beats
of a dragonfly’s wing, tingling and swelling
through her whole body

before she weakens she has to
repel the feet or are they
fins or feathers

but once again he’s wrapped his claws
around her around her neck
clawing, clawing

with all her might she repels the caress
the seeing blind
might now think of an embrace

while his claws dig deeper
into her skin, under her legs, the edge of her shell

and without her wanting it
something flares up inside her
a flash of toxic pleasure

she relaxes the tension
in her hind legs

as his shell bashes brusquely
against her buttocks, the male
tries to penetrate

black and heart-shaped
his underbelly swells the member
bulging out, the monstrous protuberance

drags his lower body down
as if he’s standing
on two legs, covering

her easily
despite her struggling

again and harder the lump bumps
against her shell raised
by the tickling by the force

the male hurls his black erectile
slug at her swinging
it more and more accurately

with her last resistance she shrinks
to close her opening to hide inside
herself, but, oh, the male pushes

and pounds and this time
the member sucks in tight

burns the more she writhes
the deeper he penetrates, the slug

is a screw
a dagger, how long

will the minutes last until you run out of breath
it lasts until he lets go

 

    9     immersion
    10     damaged
    11     migraine
    12     vulture
    13     inside of a stone
    14     thief
    15     the large and small snake goddesses
    16     scratchings
    17     in a fold
    18     phaethon
    19     road runner & wile e. coyote
    21     gouache
    22     calcite
    23     acting like stone like fruit
    24     cone
    25     pulp
    26     acacia
    27     wood anemone
    28    hiss
    29     sketch
    30     on the pond
    35     in the bog
    36     remedies
    37     history of gemstones
    38     aphrodite of knidos (360 bc)
    41     seismology
    43     tremors
    44     matar
    46     terra preta
    49     in memoriam
    50     cholita
    52     deformations
    53     on the reef
    54     ilsebill dreams
    62     seaview