All of Us Are Born in Blood
All of us are born in blood
but those born in the Abattoir
smell it every day – a
reminder that our death
is imminent and will be swift
and bloody
.
Elsewhere, childhood is different
bloodied only by scrapes and falls. Elsewhere
People are free of the smell of iron in their own hair
, sweat, clothes. They are
free of the taste of it
.
From All the Rage (Nightboat Books, 2021) by Rosamond S. King. Copyright © 2021 by Rosamond S. King. Used with the permission of the author.
Rosamond S. King
Rosamond S. King’s books include All the Rage (Nightboat, 2021) and Rock | Salt | Stone (Nightboat Books, 2017), winner of the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Poetry, as well as the award-winning monograph Island Bodies: Transgressive Sexualities in the Caribbean Imagination (University of Florida, 2015).