₭łĐ₦ɆɎⱤɎ₮Ⱨ₥

my blood is ready there, between my legs.
i tap out the excess in staccato. i catch the rain.

my body stills within wood & halogen –
the bathroom light curling like a warm finger

tracing along the empty of my earshell
like echoes puncturing the ocean; I go

blue w/ cold, wet between the hollow
noise aching against the walls

the petals of my lips stretch,
opening impaled air

Ø₦₮Ø ₴₱Ⱡł₦₮ɆⱤ₴

i’m gasping against water //

my fingers, pruneleafed // i’m gasping against muck // &

pick out leaves from your bones i harden in the shell of bathtub // i harden like air //

i go blue like fire // синею

we eat each other’s milk // nourish from the stone [of clean breasts]

we rot // together like wet fruit // i am cellophane-skinned

i am fresh linen out for drying my skin is drying my skin is white w/ envy

we exchange breasts // we exchange clean skin for dirty skin // clean nails for dirty nails // we exchange spit w/ coffee // we clot like cream // splattered

onto tile // like bile // i need you in my tongue like language

in periphery // adjacent to my sex // i exhale // my breath stretches like plastic // is warm : hollow anaesthetic // i linger in the antidote // i conjure syllables w/ spit // we fuse here

i undo your skin w/ my teeth // undo the pithy flesh of your clavicle // i store stars in the tender spot between muscle & meat // harvest for the morning

the moon is moist against our shadows // sheds our skin // duplicates

Rina Shamilov is a poet and visual artist from Brooklyn, New York, born to Soviet immigrants, and is a second-year poetry candidate at the Notre Dame MFA program. She is the author of the chapbook My Mother's Armoire (Bottlecap Press, 2025) and Hungering: Dance of the Figurines, which was named a finalist in Black Lawrence Press' Immigrant Writing Series. Her poetry and visual art can be found (and are forthcoming) in The Talon Review, Poetries in English Magazine, Ritual Dagger Zine, Ballast, Art of Nothing Press, Antiphony Press, The Laurel Review, Kismet Magazine, and Ranger, among others. The Academy of American Poets has recognized her work, and she received a Best of the Net nomination.