Saturday, June 8, 2024

Scissors By Harrison Hamm

The Rising Phoenix Review

June 5

Scissors

I cut through
the window / the whale's mouth / the whale's only
child / I am only a child
in this oblong / obtuse / obfuscation of
carnage / carnival / Judeo-Christian values—
I slip-swim into the shotgun, running with scissors
/ with skin / sin in the game
I am running / have already run / still running
/ ripping into the racehorse inside
/ Secretariat / Secretary of Transportation (gay rights!)
In the upstage / upstairs / upriver and around the
corner / coroner / corrosive shampoo / coin change
/ COME ON—
And the strip mall is stripping
itself into nothing / not even / no location
found /fancy-free / in flight— like I am
/ like we are free-falling
Through gashes of sky / gnashes of teeth / skies of teeth
And the yard is teeth
I cut and cut / keep cutting / have always cut / loved cutting
/cut the chit-chat I'm getting the belt
/ I'm cutting the fuck up—
Party crasher, call me up if you're prepared
to please me / test me / testify
/ tell me where the party went wrong
/ why anyone here has to die

By Harrison Hamm

Biography:

Harrison Hamm (@harrisonhamm) is a queer, neurodivergent, and mixed-race poet and screenwriter originally from rural Tennessee, now based in Los Angeles. A 2023 Filmmaker's Workshop Fellow with New York Stage and Film, a 2022 Fellow in Diverso's The Minority Report, and a multi research grant recipient at his alma mater Loyola Marymount University, Harrison develops creative work and scholarship with a commitment to healing and surviving on the margins. Southern Gothic at his emo kid core, Harrison explores themes of grief, violence, faith, and the erotic, often turning to dreamlike and macabre aesthetics to express what so often can't be said out loud.