Battle Horn Blow

A hot belly god a blank rage god

a roll on your belly god a praised be god

a topless on the couch god and dance floor god

a bleached hair god a slow to sober god

a god with blood on the mountains

and almost murdered sons

and songs full of broken noses and

hallowed be they warfare

a kiss me hard god with the sacrifice

between my teeth god

and rams horns torn clear

and sounded like madmen’s trumpets

spit and marrow god desert god

a dancefloor god a molten heart god

a karaoke night god brutally present god

hallowed be thy presence god with thy breath

hot in the microphone god and what holy

holy holy anti-memories we’ll consecrate god

with our tired childhood diatribes made god new

and vicious in the chords of a god song

our parents knew

Alison Lanier is a Boston-based writer and recent graduate of Wellesley College. Her fiction, reviews, articles, poetry, and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Atticus Review, Burningword, Counterpoint Magazine, and The Wellesley Review. This year she joined the editorial team at Critical Flame and co-founded Mortar Magazine.