Genetic Engineering

 
              When we argue 
 
                            hybrid bees enter my mouth.
                                                                                    African               honey bee
cross-bred with European               honey bee,
                                                                      amalgamation of the homogeneous mis-
carried;               my body 
                                                                                    releases histamine,                                                                                                   
                                          “a potent arterial dilator.”
 
 
 
Thirty minutes until I go into 
                                                                                    anaphylactic                             shock-
 
                                                        ing that you have stretched
 
your lungs for so damn                                                                                    long;
 
              these Arthropods, 
                                                                            jabbing, under-
 
cutting my tongue,                                                                       provoked by
                                                        your
tone                            and                                            aggressive packed words.
 
 
 
                My throat swells and on                            these buds
 
there is no                                                                                                   sweet taste of honey
 
                                          only the spice of carurú.
 
If in these killers’ path,                                           “you have a seventy-five percent
 
                                                        chance of a deadly
attack.” 
 
              Through these bloated lips of mine, 
 
                                          all of these                                                         sting-
 
                                                                                                                              ers exhume.
 

About the poet:

I was born in Sharon, Massachusetts in 1983 and since have lived in Boston, Chicago, and the D.C. metro area. I received my B.A. in Writing, Literature, Publishing at Emerson College, where I published a poem in the school’s literary journal Gangsters in Concrete. I have worked as an Associate Editor, editing secondary school level and collegiate level textbooks, at Pearson Education and McGraw-Hill. I am currently a graduate student in the MFA Creative Writing program at George Mason University.