we have a way of doing that,

don’t we

had i known i’d become an endangered species

i would’ve locked my door at night

installed an alarm system

slept with more strangers

had i known i’d become subhuman

i would’ve inserted myself into paintings

made snow angels on my front lawn

preserved myself in cement

so my neighbors might remember

no one knew my dermis would become scales

from scales sprout feathers in a grayscale rainbow

from feathers raw meat for the neighbor’s grill

rainbows inflamed atop briquets picking at flesh

even as a speck of what i was

the echo of a shadow of a transient form

the suggestion of a silhouette of something no longer there

there is light from a spark

Seth Leeper is a queer poet. His work has appeared in Gertrude Press, Noisemaker Magazine, Xenith Magazine, Awosting Alchemy, and Mythic Circle. He holds an M.A. in Special Education from Pace University and B.A. in Creative Writing and Fashion Journalism from San Francisco State University. He lives and teaches in Brooklyn, NY, with his cat, Rocket.