homeland burning

hunter girls

we were hungry for food,

that day at the wedding of someone we should know

but we didn't know

but we really should know

but didn't care to know.

i don't remember much of that wedding

just that the walls were purple with singing lights and grand pianos made of ice

and a naked merman sculpture

bronze like ammachy's heirloom necklace

we were hungry for food,

so we the fairy queens became speared hunters

lipstick smeared like blood across brown cheekbones

arctic dream dresses

two speared hunter girls in chiffon and smeared lipstick with unruly hair like palm tree fronds

two speared hunter girls stealing loaves of bread like thieves

long ago, we were hungry for food

today

we are hungry for adventure

stuck in homes built of equations of formulas of rhetorical grammar of the writings of old dead white men of an endless list of everything and nothing

what are we doing

we really don't know

but we really should know

but don't care to know.

still two speared hunter girls in chiffon and smeared lipstick with unruly hair like palm tree fronds

trading arctic dream dresses

for ripped up jeans the color  of post-hurricane sky

still hunters,

still hungry.