#steidle

[batarde]

These are gifts from the feral mouth.

Beth Steidle, The Static Herd.

[batarde]

Effacement: 1. An obliteration of the features (as in he begs not to be seen) 2. An erasure (oneself) (he begs not to be seen) 3. A shy withdrawal (oneself) (he begs) 4. The thinning of the mother's walls (she begs) 5. The final state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child (she begs) (he begs not to be seen) See also: childbed, confinement, lying-in, parturiency, travail, labour, labor, birth, cervix, dilation, station, flaring funnel, bathing, swimming, field, deathbed, future joy (she begs), future grief (he begs) (I beg not to be seen)

Beth Steidle, The Static Herd.

[batarde]

With our many tongues we identified ourselves as children. We asked the darkness if it had eaten.

Beth Steidle, The Static Herd.

[batarde]

For nine years, the dog left the bodies of small mammals and portions of larger ones on the front steps. For nine years, deer legs piled up on the lawn. Formed a static herd, bore up the invisible husks of upper halves.

Beth Steidle, The Static Herd.

[batarde]

I remember the exact silhouette of her form when she sunk into the Colorado and began to swim. The river turned an oxblood where she rustled up the silt. I love her exactly. I don't know you at all. There are rivers inside of you. That much we know.

Beth Steidle, The Static Herd.