The Very First Venus Flytrap

Who could blame your delicate flowers

For growing sharp teeth, for learning that flesh

Is so much tastier than sunlight

 

You found out it’s more satisfying to snap shut

Than it is to bloom, that it feels good to bite back

After being chewed on for so many centuries

 

Jaws of slender grass. Jaws of patience.

You opened your jaws once and wow

How delicious the world tasted

 

Look how your body transformed into a throat

Your roots into tongues and your blossoms into fists

I can hear your flora siblings whispering nervously

 

About the one who speaks in needles, who prefers

Blood to dew, pink fanged, an angel

With sharp wings of green, fallen straight into the dirt

 

Your life is now a feast of moth hearts

And iridescent beetle wings, bee stingers

With spider’s silk used as elegant floss

 

For your delicate lips of chattering

Knives, lips that wait patiently

To be kissed again and again

 

That’s why you were named after Aphrodite

Because eating the world counts as loving it twice

And who doesn’t want to die in the mouth of a flower?

 

Who doesn’t want to be sipped up by the Earth, cradled

Unconscious in the arms of soft petals, suffocated by sunshine

By the plant that turned into death itself?

Finally Appreciating the New Moon

It’s a blank slate, black-blessed, a moment

To enjoy the stars, not named

Like its big bright brothers are

 

But it should be, it’s a testament that huge unseen things

Can be floating directly above our heads and we’d never

Be the wiser, that even the persistence of sunlight

 

Needs sleep, no more secrets spilled

Under the moon’s sweet silver, no need for blankets

When you are concealed like an earthworm, a cavern

 

It’s the moon as whole as we’ve ever seen it

A clasping of two dark halves, providing rest

For our werewolves, a holy day of obligation

 

For all things nocturnal, if you picnic

Underneath it you enjoy the sensation of being swallowed

By the universe itself, returning to pre-light

 

When we didn’t have the sun to depend on

And the endless night sky

Was more comforting than any ball of fire

Phantom Hugger

Science has proven

That humans need at least eight hugs a day

And by golly I was going to get them

One way or another

 

I picked my targets carefully

Drooped shoulders

Downward glances

Unpresumptuous auras

All dead giveaways

 

I began with quick squeezes, innocent

Shoulder-to-shoulder

Single hand behind the back

Over in a second

Painless pats

Short and sweet and good for everybody

 

But soon it wasn’t enough, the embraces

            Were lasting longer, becoming vulnerable

Soon we were eye-to-eye

            And it was becoming embarrassingly difficult

                                                                        To let go

 

People began seeking my services

On busy sidewalks and crowded nightclub

Dance floors, a vigilante

                        Of touch therapy, of a new

Public service

 

And it wasn’t long before I perfected

            My technique, transformed my hugs

Into something sacred, something

Soul-to-soul

 

An embrace that turned me into Atlas, and you

Into the world

That wrapped around us

Again and again

Until we were lost

In a land of each other’s palms, that proved

The Earth really is

The center of the universe

That dissolved

The very concept of stranger

What I do is illegal in nearly 38 states

                                          But if you ever need me

Go out on empty nights and raise your hands

                                                                                 To the dark lonely air

I promise, eventually, I’ll be there

Dante Novario

Dante Novario is an internationally published writer from Louisville, KY where he works as a therapist with special needs individuals. Nominated for both the 2022 pushcart and rhysling awards, his writing has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Firewords Magazine, KAIROS Lit, Coffin Bell Journal, New Contexts 3, Nimrod International Journal, Thin Air Magazine and others. His poetry can also be heard on the literary podcast Strange Horizons. Find more of his writing on Instagram @dante_novario

 

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