Angel Raptors

ByCallie Lau

Zeus stript me

 

As a child

Cherry-boned, marble-chested,

Though not quite servile.

 

He loves me

The way I told him

Not to.

 

Whips gold-veined pancakes

With an extra plating of sickly-sweet syrup

Hydrogen sulfide blisters and purple hiccups

 

Lingering in my throat

Breakfast is pulpy and wet and warm and it stains.

A gluttonous guillotine.

 

Touch me there

Like the reptilian predator you are.

Feed me treats, like,

 

You are loved,

Then read me

My rights. Love,

 

There’s nothing to forgive, though

It hurts

Every now and then. The end

 

Of all things clear. He dips

My pupils scar—

Let my screams

 

Drip down your sleazy cavities as you gilded mine.

Sorry

I did filter your briny basilisk eggs

 

From my lap—

Folded gossamer napkins

Over every open eye

 

And laid them, oozing

In wicker baskets.

But I will not fuck

 

A living creature

Out of starlight

For crooks like you.

 

Pancake batter

Stuffed and sewn and soaked beneath

Your wretched serpentine fingertips

 

Strumming the lullaby

Of a thieving

Angel raptor.

 

Pulpy, and wet, and warm.

But god you’re not quite slick.

Callie Lau is an interdisciplinary storyteller, painter, and singer-songwriter. Currently, Callie is an undergraduate student at USC pursuing a Narrative Studies BA with a minor in Music Industry, and is a member of the cinema fraternity, Delta Kappa Alpha. Inspired by her favorite artists Sylvia Plath, FKA Twigs, and Michelangelo, Callie imbues her poetry with incongruous aesthetics and the transgressive power of femininity. Her recent single and music video, “Tragedies in July,” can be found on Spotify and YouTube.

You can follow Callie on Instagram and Spotify.