The Terrors of Intimacy

Xan Phillips


Long before Tara met Eggs, she shelled out her funds 
to get spat on in the woods, fed ipecac, and peyote. 
From her perspective, the way out of cessation and substance 
is through, so when the witch uncorks an amber bottle, 
and passes it saying every last drop, she drinks. 
Tara, is named after a plantation, which is another way of saying 
she died long before both of her subsequent deaths. 
Where into the body does a character go when she dies?
At her best, she may rattle within her own barbarous topography.
Uncoiling at the fire’s lip, the nip of pheromone and fetish, 
Tara’s exorcism cross-cut with two yt male exploitations, 
the men in her life predisposed to kidnap and lust. 
Miscegenation treks its snowy arc, on course. All demons present. 
Bile surpasses Tara’s mouth. In her convulsions, a dank emissary actuates. 
Paces away, the pigtailed haunt dislodged with black pleading eyes.
The witch palms her a knife, and Tara stabs her incarnation 
before she wilts to the dirt. Ending herself becomes a new death. 
Not so unlike the illusion of choice when only the demon fought to stay.