“Hungry Ghost” by Willa Schneberg, published in The Poeming Pigeon: A Journal of Poetry & Art (#14), released in October 2024, has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Please enjoy the poem, and feel free to leave a comment.
Hungry Ghost
by Willa Schneberg
Some say you look beautiful since the surgery.
Someone means you look younger.
What I see is you with a long skinny neck.
a throat too small for swallowing,
your belly bloated and bulging.
You say, for love you cannot eat eat—
only cucumber slices and sports drinks
for you.
You won’t sip your mother’s honey words
or suck my chocolate kisses. Is love
a mouth that retches water?
Does your beloved see what I see,
a neck narrow as a vacuum cleaner hose?
Perhaps your fainting is an aphrodisiac to him?
I can’t change you or anybody,
but there was a time before
you had to be the best, when you could open
your mouth so wide a yellow fish
could jump in.
from The Poeming Pigeon: A Journal of Poetry & Art (#14)
nominated for The Pushcart Prize by Shawn Aveningo Sanders, editor/publisher
