Venus Without Furs (excerpt), by Gabrielle Everall

I want to fall into the pit of his bed
If he was my tutor
it would make a fine
masochistic fantasy                                   
Each cut his lesson
of grammar

He is the main clause
I am a subordinate clause
We are a complex sentence

But I’m not supposed
to like men
My brother ruins
any desire for them

I know he will never
fuck me alive
Instead cruelly fucking me
when I am dead

I want all the women
he knows
to be lesbians pure
So, then he can
never fuck them

He is a Venus
that wears no furs
I am Severin

He is named after
disease
His gaze a machine gun
at my breast
He kisses the girls
and makes me
cry

I, a woman, am really
every man
in every nursery rhyme

I am penniless
a slave
Going to the highest
bidder

I am going to Verona
A romantic city
But like a vampire
He sucks all the romance
from me

They say to bite
the bottom lips
when kissing
is a good kiss
But I say
it is sadism

I am half dead
roadkill
Waiting to be
finished off


(Previously published in Unusual Work 2020 and In Your Hands).


To coincide with the launch of Gabrielle Everall's book, Dona Juanita and the Love of Boys, over the next few days The Apocalypse Bar will be publishing a few excerpts from the book.



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