leave / Andy Winter

after SUNMI's GASHINA (가시나):
     a) thorns on a flower
     b) "are you leaving?"
     c) (Korean slang) a bitch

                    there is a
gash in a
                    rose where you
tried me
                    like a scent

i bled petals
                    & grew a myth
while you wilted
     there was a tongue

for every nettled night
     there was a bullet of
lipstick blooming

for every flake of ash
     there was a ghost
turning the bath into a
     shade of ivy & rash

for every letter written
     there was winter
ready to spring its thorns
     mottle poems with
spines & flesh

                    there is a
bitch you left behind
     in a vase in a room
          a mermaid on a rock
               a glass jar fairy
                    a flower aimed
                        at your head

***

Full-time broke person with expensive tastes, Andy Winter is a gay, non-binary poet from Singapore. They are a whimsical blend of narcissism and self-loathing that is thoroughly unimpressed with reality. Aside from being an English Literature major, Andy is also a drag performer. Their works have been published in Cordite Poetry Review.