How to Heal a Snake Bite

The hallucinations will try to take
you young: first of kiss and
brush of hand over hair. Such perfections come
from your world peeling itself new.
You knew this must be the way to rebirth: the ugliness, the scars.
Grotesque grows the better, the best. You must grind the leaves
down to flakes, a pinch for his fall to follow
the way to redemption. Spit once.
Spit twice as a reminder of words
like poison. Release his lips and his teeth from
your skin; saliva seeps in memory
where berry bleeds a rouge bruise on neck.
Swipe the stain with his handkerchief,
and burn through to ash.
Mix these to a poultice for healing.
Next a heaping spoon of pickled rind:
watermelon from summer’s heat,
citrus for the sour; eat them
down. Take the skin, paper the wounds
with words written by the beast,
which bit you.

 

 

 

Kayla King is a graduate of Buffalo State College’s B.A. in Writing (2013), and the Mountainview MFA (2016). She is an editor and contributing writer for One For One Thousand, an online magazine dedicated to the profundity of flash fiction. Kayla is the Blog Manager and Staff Reviewer at Young Adult Books Central. Her work has been published by or is forthcoming from One For One Thousand, Germ Magazine, Five 2 One Magazine, Plath Poetry Project, Cat on a Leash Review, Souvenir Lit Journal, and Twelve Winters Press. You can find more about Kayla King at her website and blog: http://kaylamaeking.wixsite.com/kayla-king-books.