(Untitled)

 cinnamon persimmons chilled

and ingrown incestuous 

like bulbous non-plants in the desert

where everything breathing is sharp and aroused.

illustrious indigo in demand in the fish gills.

gift him to them and they will gift us with christ or dick

sickened and pink, pills and trimmed quilt sills 

one dozen 

crinkle pink until quilted fists oil up and inherit it 

christen the new born atheists with belugas and bunches of tin wheelers

restless bums for the hills to give

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 dribble

and rumpled to the pear leaves

suckle gold juice clean out the worm holes

the skin will be ribbed

for pleasure and then popped

with holes where the bugs came

but that just makes the fruit all the warmer for the intestines to swarm

but the sun will give me the light I lack and the sand and sea reflect the medicine even more

the big rocks where we peed, those are the wholesome loads that calm the tide and ground your skin in the heat

Author’s Note

As a young writer perhaps the most daunting task I have faced is translating such a broad spectrum of budding emotions, opinions, and information into poetics. Specifically in the context of social media it feels near impossible to consume every relevant idea and convert it into thoughtful, easy-to-consume verse. I think over the past few years this challenge has been too intimidating for me to take on. I found that rather than use poetry as a medium to express my politics, my sexuality, or my insecurities, I preferred to use writing as an escape from reality. I have often written about utopian landscapes where natural imagery and flowery adjectives about color, touch, and sound dominate the narrative. 

As of lately I have begun to explore the integration of such comfortable techniques with language that feels uncomfortable. My writing has always been about synesthetic exploration but why have I been leaving out an entire realm of sensory vocabulary simply because the sensations described allude to the explicit? 

In my most recent pieces I aim not to exploit vulgar language for its shock appeal, but to show the hidden delicacy and elegance of words that might feel uncomfortable or unsuitable for a young woman poet.

Lulu Priddy (they/them) is a writer and visual artist who experiments primarily with poetry, drawing, and watercolor. Lulu’s work tends to explore the body, using imagery of nature and the corporeal to blur the line between the alluring and the revolting. Lulu graduated from Scripps College in 2020 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Media Studies. They’re currently pursuing various artistic and occupational pursuits. Lulu is the author of the chapbook Swallow, Low (2015).