OXIDANT | ENGINE : Issue 4
Katie Hibner
If the Archive of Western Art invites you to a party, expect:
shaved stigmatas
the Ganymedes bunched,
teasing from the manger
dunk tanks of stop bath
quatrefoils baked
in thermoplastics
color-coded maws
the foreshortening schooner recommissioned,
bunged with alkyds
tempera—your striae sluiced eggy
grilled volutes and tori
bartering for focal nectar
dust pouches generously doled
(every mote
believed bankable)
new recommendations to scumble
the craquelure spelling out:
PRIMITIVISM EUNUCH SABLE VENUS
don’t list from the cranial blowback
sneak out through the slight opening
for a critical
retrospective
(Note: I attribute the phrase “sable Venus” to Robin Coste Lewis)
Katie Hibner’s poetry has been or will be published by inter|rupture, Pretty Owl Poetry, SOFTBLOW, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Vinyl, andYalobusha Review. She has read for Bennington Review, Salamander, and Sixth Finch. Katie dedicates all her poetry to the memory of her mother and best friend, Laurie.