playing Deftones on repeat for days

D. R. Wormack

The opening note to the song starts a with humming C major 7th chord that enters the chest and reverberates down the vertebrae, sinking to the toes that curl, then settle. The soft, ph of the first line …floating…

down beside it, widens the mouth,

wets the tongue, and prepares the throat

to take the A suspended 2nd chord

that bends around the lungs, looping

tiny black bows flexible as molten tar

through the ribcage that creaks

like branches on nearby trees

under the weight of the wind. The C leaves,

pressurizes the brain with too much empty space,

tv static in the open air, blows out the retinas.

Blind, until a rattling F major 7th

rips through the top of the skull.

The crime tape of the instrument break

holds the body in place as the soul escapes

to the sky. (the second verse begins) The baritone grovels

…into…

latching claws on formless shoulders,

lifting them high above a willow

to fly with a hollow feeling. The thin skin

of flapping wings, the bats who searched

through soundwaves to find their meal

of aural pleasure: a Sextape.

The bats lead the soul to space, on the way,

cold wind slices through the core

with the grating teeth of a sawblade.

The bats feast on the carcass

and the soul floats away

and hits replay to take it

…one more time…

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2023.

Inspired by this song.