POETRY: gamma-aminobutyric acid or GABA / DENA ROD
Dena Rod released their new book–Scattered Arils (Milk & Cake Press)–just a few short months ago and if you haven’t read it, well, we highly recommend it. Rod’s writing digs deeply into their past, their ancestral heritage, and a collective sense of displacement. We are excited to feature a poem from the collection–”gamma-aminobutyric acid or GABA”–and even more excited that Rod put together a lovely recording.
Give it a listen. Buy the book.
“gamma-aminobutyric acid or GABA”
by Dena Rod
worry is another love, to worry is to love
sweet talismans of take care / be well
not enough to guard against
metal sharpened teeth biting down
on inner cheeks, salted salivary
shame flowing down through lips.
my mother’s love is worried
cuticles, scorched forearms
forcing a plastic lid cracked open,
to peel back foil of never sour enough mast,
tanged with thick prepped herbs that
radiate love, a worried radiation full
of sweet morsels to feed syrup down
your throat, raw short nails scoring
the plain of mars, kindling flames
humming glassy eyed, worry sheared razor thin,
roasted fat dripping hot, burning flesh,
wiping out wellbeing.
my mother’s love a sun small enough
to burn me, encompassing warmth,
coppered hot and floral, mint alighting
my tongue, irradiated comfort
fleeting against the bordered
creases in our eyes.
crawled from the belly of my
father, my mother too wounded
to carry me, a blazing sun crisping
me brown, leaving a parched shell
behind crumpled from intense radiation
blasting everything in its path.
mirror the way my love is worried,
care tossed in worry wrapped
around my figure, refreshed
to pink and blue plump little cakes
climbing to dream ourselves
wicked, benzos bitter on our tongues.
unease dissolving sharp and metallic,
worry burned brightly away under
a chemical blank, a challenge forgotten.
Dena Rod is a writer living in the Bay Area.
