KEITH J. CASTILLO is a nonbinary Salvadorian-Canadian. He’s been published in Cosmonauts Avenue, Crab Fat Magazine and The Rising Phoenix Press. You can find him on twitter @nonbinarybird.
Mouth Dirge can be found in Augur Magazine Issue 2.2.
Mouth Dirge
Keith J. Castillo
MOUTH DIRGE
by Keith J. Castillo
too quick / too slow / too lean / too fat / too mice gentle / too roaring loud / too quick for ear and tongue and brain / too slow for mouth and teeth and lung / too leopard lion fast / too snail sloth slow / speech therapist ready / slurred and rushed and frantic and drawled / quick wit slowed by clumsy tongue / clumsy tongue tricked by sharp brain / sharp brain rushing and rushing and frantic and manic and / and / and / years / years and / years of speech and speaking and not being heard & / light rushing through us as if we aren’t there & / i want to be opaque and dark / unyielding and harsh / not betrayed by light and sun / i will take the dark and use it / form words from shadow / crystal and razor sharp / i will be eloquence and beauty and disaster and carnage / i will be dark and cloudy and speaking and / and i will be understood / words clear as water / clear as night filled with stars and
and i am tired of being silenced.
