Gub Dog

by Addy Gravatte

Dedicated to the Holy Body of Saint Margery Kempe

I want my real red blood on that faux pink fur

But then it’d be burgundy—

I’m too putrid for today

Nobody don’t avoid me!

Before you are very stupid and then you are smart

I have always been a witch

And I have always been obliged

To tell them I am no

When I was young I’d get a creature in my stomach

And close my eyes I’d know I’d see

My flesh, contracting to its slimmest space,

Then expanding to its largest possibly

—rapidly contracting, ‘twas gut-stuck between the two

Until I remembered my tangible body

It was proto-sexual for me!

I am gross, oh I am a gross thing.