i go dumpster

diving in the

mouth of a volcano

and come up

with molten shreds

dark and glittering

shadow-mad

i lug everything

through the underground

catacombs when i arrive

submerged into

the house it’s dim i lay

everything out to cool

under the branches of

an ancestral pine

all the junk

a cicada shell

with no tenant

an heirloom hacksaw

rusted

shattered clay birds

serrated incisors

dated news from a foreign country

in the corpse-cold

moonlight it gleams and

i hold all my junk before

me in my arms.

Lorenzo Barajas is a clout-chasing Californian pursuing a degree in English (and possibly Art History) to unknown ends. He is interested in experimental medieval texts, early abstract expressionism, and intersections with his identity as a trans Mexican-American.