February 7, 2023
What the Beast Desires
Josh Handville
[content warning: suicidal ideation]
a terminal constellation / a polka dot brain / some MRI scans /
no survivability / a car crash coma / an unconscious sanctuary /
a graveless release / a corpse still breathing / a Van Gogh death /
one gutshot’s certainty / a crimson belly painting a commissioned
masterpiece / Hemingway’s guilty gun / & one anxious round /
a cleaning kit / an accident / a suicide later found / a host /
some prey / a new mind to lay waste / an old hungry hell lapping
flesh with flame / a life cut short / beneath the taunting of a blade /
or an oven door disguised as an exit sign / singing carbon monoxide
lullabies / perhaps the same that soothed Sylvia to sleep … / a feast
to ensure hope’s de-boned & devoured / as a starving servant /
disappears
previously published in issue #17 of Into the Void
J.A. Handville is a poet based in Syracuse, New York, and the self-published author of Internalize (2018) and Drowning in the Ink of Oblivion (2021). In between consuming copious amounts of coffee, J.A. Handville creates collages and poetry often themed around the difficulties of love, mental illness, and the human condition. J.A. Handville’s poetry has been published in Unvael, Into the Void, Dissonance Magazine, VAINE Magazine, and Humana Obscura. You can find him on Instagram at j.a._handville.