Kia Alice Groom
Dis(track)possessed
beat thick & stone
thresh—my infernal eye
with its glittering pulse. Look at that
unspooling tongue spilling
lazy tape. My shadow
drips mirrors, speaks in the deepest
lilac. Each of her ten claws
knows lockpick, jawbone. One
unseen hand aspects the subtle
bones. There’s an image
replaying on a dusty screen
somewhere in hell—or the next town
over. Autopsy of a melted doll
wrapped in useless maneuvers.
Half a lifetime away I hear
my tender arachnoids click. Snow
on the glass as the VHS snaps.
Every burned out strip mall is this
one: Ur husk, Blockbusted, your child
hood & mine doing hauntology.
Heavy with reflection I chime
into the ether. There’s nothing
on the security camera footage
but you’ll see me
in time.
Chimera (Eastern Hognose x Funnel Web)
dead center, black sclera,
an onyx eye caught
in the ink net. Dream
collapses & holds every rattling
void. I shake through.
The body is just a house—
backrooms baby,
the boy who is all hallways.
Pull cords from the smoky
mirrors, framed mist
& falling ash, phantom
fingers extending with needle,
with thread. My limbs tangled,
delicate canvas with dental records.
How to embody
a beast. I have studied
the craft of embroidering threat-
aura, how to weave
a garment so soft you can’t see
its violence. I rattle. I slip
through cornea gaps, hidden
doorways. I writhe here & play
dead til’ I’m ready. In
& out,
that scarlet filament. Skin
marked, perforations, a crack
where the bloodjet runs cold.
All that shadow pouring out of you.
I’ll braid that, too.
I Will Train the Wasps to Love You
(for Lauren)
dark thing, soft-centered -
panic in a red dress clawing
at the dead-eyed
daddies who can’t daddy
right. Listen, hush.
We will build a glass terrarium
for heartache. We will file
your nails into knife points.
We will suck sapblood from the soil
through our fingertips. Point
him out in a lineup. Consult
the cotillion of stars. Cosmic
etiquette means no mercy,
unbound by moral law, split
your shoulder blades
& tremor your witchwings. How
it feels to be untethered,
unashamed. How it feels
to feral your heartblood
over the contours of his landscape.
Build it
with oils, with glitter.
Construct a biome for the love
you deserve. Learning
to be free is painful.
Piss in a jar, salt & cayenne,
legs slick with black wax
& grave dirt. The earth
spits us back & we find our sting -
a vicious thread, a sharpness.
When you’re all teeth,
that’s when you know it. Born
clean, untouchable, & the wasps
circling your head like a crown.
Kia Alice Groom is a writer, witch, & professional weirdo. Her poems have appeared in various print and digital journals, along with anthologies such as the Hunter Anthology of Contemporary Australian Feminist Poetry. Her chapbook, Lucid: A micro-memoir was published by Porkbelly Press in 2020. Born in England, raised in Australia, and a resident of New Orleans for the past 13 years, she can be found doing professional witchery at IG: @celestemott / celestemott.com. Also, she was in an Anne Rice Vampire Cult (and she won't shut up about it).