Elisabeth Workman

Cleft Figure

Heraclitus might
have said War
is father of all
king of all

then slit the
neck of a lesser
at the company pic
nic of the patriarchy
while — in another
construct —
Hera, Queen Bitch
(sometimes called
quote Cow Face unquote
according to Greek
godsandgoddesses
dot net), in a
given ecstasy
could have said
You know
I could crush
your precious head
with my heifer
thighs and devour
you
but did
not and did
not her omission
noted here from
this nether world
neither heaven
nor civilized
but heavily branded
and still divided by
a confusion of
who consumes
vs. who’s consumed
— is that
what’s meant
by world
order—an ancient
formula thru which
fear is cleaving
& scapegoats
— cloven

Elisabeth Workman is the author of ULTRAMEGAPRAIRIELAND (Bloof Books, 2014), ENDLESSNESS IS NO DESOLATION (Dusie Press, 2016), and over a dozen chapbooks, including Maybe Malibu, Maybe Beowulf (Dusie Kollektiv, 2011); with Michael Sikkema, TERRORISM IS WHAT WHALE (Grey Book Press, 2014) and Moon Poon (Pity Milk, 2016); ANY RIP A THRESHOLD (Shirt Pocket Press, 2015); SHIMMERNUT (our teeth, 2019); THE BOX IS THE WOMB OR (Dusie Kollektiv, 2019); and "Merfrau," a long poem for Jenny Schmid's Codex of Quotidian Beasts. A new chapbook, The Figures: A Litter, is forthcoming with Dancing Girl Press. She lives in Minneapolis and can be found in the disembodied realm here: elisabethworkman.com