Brody Parish Craig

Harm Reduction
for M.H.

We’re born with empty stomachs
Long before we learn to empty language
On the floor of a friend’s kitchen,
Long before the craving meets desire
Or the glass pipe’s flame—

We taste each other’s ashes
In the shit talk & the parking lot,
In the columbarium
Your ashes rise
To meet my breath
& I look up the word—

Tonight I’m eating bread
To spite the stars for shining on us
I am throwing etymology away
For pigeon’s sake—

I am tasting every corner
Of the steps
Up to your house—

Not the house you left that morning
But the house behind the headshop

The porch stoop where some quiet lives
For once, For me, For you, For all of us—

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Originally from Louisiana, Brody Parrish Craig (they/them) is a queer Southern writer who upheaves expectations to open space for connection, unlearning, and change. They are the author of The Patient Is an Unreliable Historian and Boyish, the winner of the 2019 Omnidawn Poetry Chapbook Contest. They are the editor of TWANG, a regional collection of trans, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary creators tied to the South and Midwest. Their poems have appeared in Poetry magazine, Muzzle Magazine, Mississippi Review, and beestung, among others. Find more on their work at brodyparrishcraig.com.