Nearest alleyway becomes a runway taxi
as pitch as dark can be, even for midnight.
Venom seems to have a way of finding me,
whether it’s in the blackest of black or broad daylight.
The Fool Empress has grown six extra legs
and her pincers and stinger have become her best friends.
She looks at my wild hair and claims she sees herself and says,
“No more need to be running, no more need to pretend
to be satisfied. I bring you a healthy venom to enable
you to dance and sing and paint and write and dream again.
Your old skin is far past dead and decaying, so can
you see me, as not some kind of fringe but a friend?”
I make friends with scorpions,
one who sees that The Fool Empress might be me.
I make friends with scorpions,
one who frees me from this midnight runway taxi.
– Christine Byczkiewicz
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