I want to swallow you whole—the seeds, the rotten pieces, the pith. The days keep ticking down and time is never going to stop. Might as well use fingers over forks, teeth over knives. Plans to devour you are always in my pipeline. I want you flossed in the split of my tongue, tethered to me indefinitely. I want everything, or nothing at all. You are at my mercy, signing the deeds to your heart over to mine. I am not thawing into a new year—I am reviving old ghosts in unfixable fixation. I am roles in reverse in reverse in reverse, drowning you in tides of uncertainty. December is for forgiveness, and I have absolved myself of self-induced starvation. I will do anything to make me happy. I will bleed my hippocampus of memory just to gorge myself on you.

Prompts used (tags are the poets’ IG handles):

@__vigilancee - “reviving old goals” @angelealowes - “from my heart to yours” @elenaspoetry - “a poem that will end a war” @kaytpoems - “thawing into a new year” @alexismromo - “the days keep ticking down and time is never going to stop” @itsashenelthing - “December is for forgiveness” + “I will do anything to make me happy” + “bleeding hippocampus” + “tethered indefinitely” + “role reversal” + “I wanna swallow you whole—seeds, rotten pieces” + “unfixable” + “signing the deeds to my heart” + “at your mercy” + “tides of uncertainty” + “plans to devour you are always in my pipeline” + “everything, or nothing at all”