Cordelia
You are like the rats you love:
cunning, clean, clandestine, curled
in a corner where you’re least expected;
my mother cleaned rat shit out of a moldy
house– I cleaned you out of my mind’s crevices
where you nestled, whispering dimestore poetry
you clothe yourself in pastel pink and lavender,
you fill your floral journals with the supernatural,
pasting the pages with pentagrams, fairies, and cherubim
as you lie amongst plush fawns and carnations, your
disciples surround you bearing a sacrifice for admittance–
just as goats are sacrificed in satanic rituals, your entourage
sacrifice themselves to you so can you feast on every favor,
every sympathetic ear, every earnest confession; you sink your
teeth into any virtue and transform it into the worship of a false idol.
Alex LeGrys received her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Bard College in 2023. In her spare time, she enjoys strumming mindlessly on the guitar while poorly singing her own lyrics, reading and writing poetry, and listening to Elliott Smith with her black cat, Christofer. Her work has appeared in Apricity Press, Oyez Review, The Whistling Shade, Flora Fiction, Blue Lake Review, and The Queens Review.