Crying Venusians

dedicated to Ashley Santiago Ocasio and Jorge Steven Mercado

My skin shrieks,

a cave dweller notified

of yet another death,

filaments by which the eagerness

of penguins annihilate the last threads

of memories dwindling in oceanic twilight.

I did not want to leave

a trail for redheaded dragons

with fiery tongues to terrify

empty lighthouses,

meadows and the jingles

of readers on my day

of resurrection.

Queen Lazarus unwraps

my feet with the grace

of a deer tutoring my hands

in the art of dying.

Daddy, daddy, daddy

my knees are skin and bone.

I wear a pink triangle

and numbers tattooed

around my ankle.