But We Could Be Dining Anywhere
2024
By This Cruel Temple
(Hannah Kate Absalom, Em Doodles, Meej Douglas, Hollie Palmer, & Bodie Stanley)



swallowed funeral
but we could be dining anywhere

damp setting in
I will take internal bleeding instead
splitting of the thick flesh morsel
splayed

rest hostile by design 
thorns slumber

tendril corpse chant

my chest must hold puddles of saltwater
speaking - holding the last catch
gaps between fictional 
intervening spine
wilting

un-tethering barriers speckled
gnawing

I have felt uneasy in this body for some time
waiting

mould grows in my mouth

I will always take the long way home it is
beautiful and so biting

journeying           jarring           caught on the
                                   line
buttery    nostalgic    growing violence

only an impulse in heat
so I will choke on that too
sunken feet subvert into blackened lungs
      harvesting decay playful venom
                                   systems sinking bugs legs
                                         footsteps in the march
                          fumbled fumigating synapses

undying hive work in the midst of stabbing 
                                  rubber

bramble cesspit creature healing white 
mould and I am disgusted at myself

    wholesome autolysis
         flesh could be dissolved from the video
                                                 extend the ghost

  bewildered proximity abandoned 
my creaking body runs gracelessly

     melody absent benediction 
      soggy soil eyes wide open

meagre obstructions
                                          fictional breakdowns

the device of isolation oozes obsession
talk to me so I know I'm real.