Tianna G. Hansen: 3 poems
brittle
last night my bones became brittle,
obsequious to your every desire...
I felt them tremble within, a
vibrating skeleton of pearls.
watch me glimmer for you,
contort into
whoever
you want
me to be,
whatever
skeletal shape
I am perceived
in your eyes
nothing but
bones
scorched black
from rising heat of the fire
that darkened soot lingering
fingers of flame devoured my flesh
all that remains are these delicate
bones, becoming power with a single
touch – dust to dance away
with the wind.
to the leering
feasting on me, my body
is mine; belongs to no one else
no matter how you mar it,
stinging teeth & foaming maw,
I will burn you from existence
and dance through your ashes.
I will destroy all you claim
to create from my bitter bones,
drown you in holy waters
shimmering always like oil
slicks across the surface.
clutching keys between fingers
like claws, ready to strike
ready to draw blood,
taste of iron in my throat.
take those eyes off me.
offer me your disgrace
wrapped in tender plastic.
I will capture in gloved hands
your suffocating breath
as you shudder beneath,
my heels lodged deep
in your jugular vein.
let the whims of men
bleed out and the glory
of women, of what we can
create, what we hold true
in our tight wombs, stand as
goddesses. each and every
one of us, we are regal.
lay prostrate and worship us,
beg forgiveness for eons of sin.
your lifeblood on our hands
lends strength and power –
a grip on this Hell that you
have created; Persephone’s
liberating haven presents
pomegranate seeds of hope
only to destroy the buds
in deathly poison grip.
becoming Calypso
Adrift, I am unanchored from
the shores of my discovery, a buoy
floating through uncharted waters
fathoms of sea sprawling beneath.
Become one with the ocean,
worshipped over candlelit myth;
a goddess rising on waves to
overtake sailors’ ships
towering above
with scaled, perfect flesh
I am a dragon abreast,
breathing smoke and brine.
Come find me in the night
blindfolded by darkness
I am the nymph queen, capturing you
in spells. Never to be tamed
or caged.
I'll turn your black heart to coral stone
steal it from the cavern above your lungs
lock it in a chest—beating, beating
Embrace me,
stretch this skin until
it hugs my bones
a gown of seaweed
tentacles entwined
No mistress or maiden
I am goddess.
Tianna G. Hansen has been writing her whole life and focuses much of her work on personal experience. She founded and works as Editor-in-Chief of Rhythm & Bones Press which specializes in the idea of turning trauma into art. A poetess, novelist, memoirist, creative nonfiction and flash fiction writer, her work has been published widely – find it at CreativeTianna.com, follow her on Twitter @tiannag92 / Instagram @tgghansen24. Check out her press at RhythmNBone.com / Twitter @RhythmBonesLit / IG @RhythmBonesPress. Her first collection is coming this year from APEP Publications.