CD Eskilson

 CD Eskilson

From Prey*

After Cameron Awkward-Rich

Once, a body was inlaid with opal
and so men demanded proof of gleaming.

Once, a body nursed on milkweed draughts
so men broke every glass, assigned hemlock instead.

So much language is a hunting ground. Drag carcass
through a glade, desert it, call this birth. Stalk does

while doused in roebuck piss and claim good faith
pursuit. Once, hands chipped a body into gravel,

tried sieving presence out from absence. The chest
stripped of its legal lungs. Once, a body spoke its name

and men decided that meant ghost.

* Italicized words are pulled from reported language in a canceled transphobic Housing and Urban Development proposal. If enacted, it would have allowed federally-funded homeless shelters to
judge a person’s physical characteristics in determining whether they belong in a women’s or men’s shelter. The National Center for Transgender Equality found that 29 percent of trans people live in poverty, and one in five trans people in the US will experience homelessness.