we have tongues
but don’t taste
 
the blood of a boar who has eaten
his young 

she and i did not hear until we heard
singing
a whispering of stellar birdwings
in our sleep 

waking us through all the starry abundances
windbone she is in love
inside you and wombing she is aquainted with fusion
nucleons forming a helium nucleus in the interior of stars
 
never mind how a bullet that pierces the jaw and ricochets 
off the shoulder blade becomes lodged in the lung 

                                                                 iii.3 

Shann Ray | Atomic Theory 432, iii.4
Contents | Mudlark No. 64 (2018)