Transubstantiation
- Transubstantiation
When I tell him I can't sleephe tells me a story. Imaginehe says, a field
ripe with strawberries.and a dog made out of sponge cakerunning through the field.
There is a whipped cream river and the dog, soppingwith sweet juice, black seeds on his belly, jumps in.You take a spoon
from your pocketand eat him. You eat his paw. Eat his wet nose,suck his tail like a line of licorice. He likes it.
He wants you to eat his soft body,lick his sticky from your face.You, too, want to feel him
become you, feel his furbrush your throat, crush his teeth with yours.You've always wanted a dog. And now he fills [End Page 7]
your veins, settles to the bottomof your heart like small stonesin a stilled stream. [End Page 8]
Michelle Bonczek Evory is the author of The Art of the Nipple (2013) and Naming the Unnameable An Approach to Poetry for New Generations (forthcoming). Her poetry is featured in the 2013 Best New Poets anthology and has been published in over seventy journals and magazines, including Crazyhorse, cream city review, Green Mountains Review, Orion Magazine, and The Progressive. She holds a PhD from Western Michigan University and an MFA from Eastern Washington University, taught most recently at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and mentors poets at the Poet’s Billow (thepoetsbillow.org).
