ctrl + v


shelby pinkham




(view original version of this piece.)



SEGMENTS OF MY WET, ANGRY SPINAL CORD

Slouched
over chilaquiles,
roadrunner
comes
full stop

revealing
a map
of Uelita’s softest
roots
whispy, forgotten

as I plant
my finger
and thumb
againstearth

this is
segunda-espina
my fears
are her fears

phobia comes from
phobus or panic
anger
takes root
in strangle,

some stop and hold
some stand
before the court

here is the
room
where
pig says
don’t move and
family history holds still

addiction
ends & my gambling
begins

coffee grounds tumble
from my eyes
I curve salt through
these glands

I pledge
to the judge’s robes
roadrunner
barks from some future
in which water is implanted, digitally enhanced

electronic
drip

spine
grinds
my temper
to
a pulp
along my back, grandmother draws

a map
without
country

without states, without lines, without oil,
with only memory & pleasure,
queering my body







WANT HIGHEST SETTING



tears

spit

un’drought

born again queer

clinically angry

lil crazy head locx en cabezx

bury me in
soft archive

moon’s teeth
speeding up

twist & knot
a fix of rust
of moss

a needle in a border







Materials & Notes:
Segments of My Wet, Angry Spinal Cord
Anatomical illustration of the spinal cord from Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, published by The Williams & Wilkins Company, 1961. Photograph of smiling woman sitting on a twin bed, wearing a hat and sunglasses is the artist’s maternal grandma, Uelita Becky, 1972. Film strip of a stairwell taken and processed by the artist, 2011. Map of Kern River Oil Field in Bakersfield, CA; it is the third largest oil field in California.

want highest setting
Thread, needle, Lotto ticket, acrylics, Neighborhood Thrift tags, bread closure tabs, general household trash, and image from James Tilly Matthew’s “Illustration of the Airloom” (1810). Christmas Lotto ticket presumedly Grandma Toni’s as it was tucked into her copy of Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary. James Tilly Matthew is considered the first person with a documented case of paranoid schizophrenia.







back to issue 12