i wish you'd worship me

Kalila Camilon

all i ask for is the milk to wash
away last night’s performance, holding out
my red palms. in the morning i will remember the honey
to wipe away the swelling fluorescence in my heart to ease
a boiling kettle into its ritual. my hot fever kisses
around my lashes bearing the amniotic sac
that contains last night’s sadness. i am banished
to an archipelago of silence amidst the stuttering
rifles, your providence will not save us and the swollen bullet holes.
still if i prick the irises, the floodwaters will not be enough
to reclaim the promised land. you are not
the father, the son, nor the holy brothel.
tears are pomegranate seeds, unearned
guilt to wash away this confessional. chaste
bodies run through an amniotic deluge.
let’s hope im not mama mary, but dear god
i wish you’d worship me.

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Kalila is a painting student at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. She likes writing about her sadness at 3 in the morning and sipping late night coffee, but sometimes it's about happiness.

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