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.
Illustration by Mitali Khanna Sharma
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.