HOT HONEY
by Chloe Tsolakoglou

Bold bads! yells Undeniable across the
dinner table. We brim with laughter and spill
grains of fried rice. We are born
together. It is, for a moment, the twittering
of desire. Desire is the bunch of cherry
tomatoes at the edge of my sight.
Everyone is more beautiful than I could hope
to be. Disbelief sits next to me and mixes hot
honey into their meal. I hold down Apollo’s leash as
he lunges toward an unsuspecting bullfrog.
What else do we know? We are all things that have been.
Chiseled beam, puff of hydrangea, striated squash.
O’ mess, O’ communion
A cloud of arms pantomime fullness,
mischief. We rush to the meadow’s clearing
and paint the night. I call this high fidelity.
This need for badliness––as if all violence is
the means of creation.
About the Author
Chloe Tsolakoglou is a poet, translator, and scholar who is currently a Ph.D. student at Columbia University's English and Comparative Literature program.