“Still Life with Watermelon Seeds, Mannequin, Dead Mouse,” by Sarah Audsley (Poetry ’19)

2019 poetry alum Sarah Audsley was recently featured in Defunct. Read an excerpt of Audsley’s poem below:

Still Life with Watermelon Seeds, Mannequin, Dead Mouse

Serrated edge flash shards of light on white walls, carving

up the watermelon slices that drip juice down our thin

brown arms, my father salts his pink slice-smiles, tiny

grains melt in. A neon sign, in my mouth, this shock of fruit-flesh.

Don’t swallow the seeds! he warns & I want to so bad & I’m bad

under the covers, eyes shut, I see twisted vines tumble, roots

embed in my stomach’s black, new green shoots slide

over my thick pink tongue . . .

Read this poem in its entirety here: https://defunct.site/issue/9/authors/64/sarah_audsley/124/still_life_with_watermelon_seeds_mannequin_dead_mouse