Beijing Boa
deep crimson scales colored by students writhing atop the pavement
like twisted marionettes sprinkled in front of paradise as the lights dim.
flesh melting into ruby lakes, soaked and cold. as torn limbs undergo
metamorphosis into the city flags.
the thunderclap staccato continues, accompanied by screaming crescendo
when the boa buries shrapnel in my sinews.
tessellated shield over bleeding knives, the arm-of-the-state.
tighter. tighter. i wrench against stone wrapping around my shoulder,
wishing to slaughter its jasper skin so that my pen may touch vellum.
my fingertips press into the grand army, unpenetrated latticework.
though my hands cry auburn rivers, i can finally feel
coil snapping my neck. vertebrae crying out requiems.
serrated and gleaming in their betrayal, having pierced
a bittersweet frequency. i had wished my throat a knife to slice
this hollowbreath noose opening my neck, but the only blades that remain
are the sharp edges of a shattered mausoleum.
my epitaph, spit onto weeping willows, and too dead to die again.
they’ll flay my scalp to chin. burn the rest of my rotting parchment.
revel in my curling ash thickened by the charcoal air.
as they forget my body ever thrashed, ever lived at all,
Thomas Guo, CA, Bellarmine College Preparatory
