Leeks in Broth

Forgot to thoroughly wash the leeks, crunches of dirt
with every bite. Learn about a shop caught serving seagull

that had to shutter. Birds grind stones and earth through
the gizzard. The one time I tried gizzard on a torched stick

I gagged from its hardness. People enjoy the grit of sand
when they know the organ’s function. But I was 24 and broken.

Had known tongues to be alien in my mouth, my mouth also
strained and alien. At night, I pull protein threads from my teeth.

Know that I beg for love when it’s denied. That I will chew the
earth and its nutrients with hungry rhythm if it means I’ll be held.

Seagull chicks know to peck on the red dot of their mother’s
lower beak to stimulate vomit. This is succor, how to survive.

I presented you a bowl, a hamper of clean, folded linens, an un opened
La Croix. Somewhere, heaps of beaks flash red, hunger every direction.