Emari DiGiorgio

Illustrations by Raphael Vicenzi

Espionage
Noon. A dry martini at the beach bar,
a man swizzles his ‘stache. Bond. Jaime
Bond, he says. I’m stalled out by the pool
watching birds shit on lounge chairs.
A fat woman smooths her swim-skirt, oils up.
I reach for my drink. The man wants me
to tell him what I know. Over dinner perhaps,
or later, we can go for a swim. Only, I tell him,
if I can strap a pistol to my thigh.

When I Was Catholic

Laid out like the Eucharist on the bathroom floor.
                           My breasts
              in your mouth, sweet wine sticking to fingers

and thighs. So close, like a wafer on my tongue,
                        the taste
                of blood. Do unto, do unto, do unto me.

Women in their Twenties

Some pile plates with thick calves,
pouty lips, or blue eyes on toothpicks.

We gnaw limbs braised in shimmer powder,
cocoa butter, sample each other’s face.

A few offer themselves up to be eaten.
We are all hungry. The woman at the register

waits for me. She will not use a napkin,
she will pick my hair from her teeth. I crave

the bony ones in high heels, peel back
their skin with my nails, grab a rib, make a wish.

Boning

Let’s rub skulls, the dead say, leaning up
            against the soft earth, legs crossed, heads

tilted to the side. So it starts: crania pressed,
            a little nodding. The smooth enameled arcs

polish circles on their brows, and before long
            their whole bodies knock. Their ribs tangle

and clumsily lock, and the dead do not stop
            grasping with thin fingers and open mouths

whether they knew each other on earth, or not.

Legend has it, Emari DiGiorgio’s long hair must remain un-cut until she removes the ancient curse placed on her bloodline, and the spell has something to do with aligning her hips in Warrior I while reciting The Inferno from memory. She teaches at The Richard Stockton College of NJ and is a NJ State Council on the Arts Poet-in-the-Schools. Emari is a recipient of a Vermont Studio Center Residency in June 2009, a 2007 NJ State Council on the Arts Poetry Fellowship, and the Ellen LaForge Memorial Poetry Prize in 2006. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Feminist Studies, US 1 Worksheets, The Marlboro Review, The Grolier Poetry Annual, So to Speak, The Georgetown Review, Buffalo Carp, Whiskey Island, The Barn Owl Review, HerMark 2009, Switched-on Gutenberg, and the Paterson Literary Review.

Raphael Vicenzi is a self-taught illustrator from Brussels, Belgium. He has been featured in Illusive2, Fashion Wonderland, IDEA design, Computer arts, Advanced Photoshop and others. Visit his website here.