Cheese Poetry: growth by Caitlin Baird

We launched our Cheese issue May 27th at Make. Here on the web, we're keeping the theme alive with this poem by Caitlin Baird.

"Serpent Charmers" by Nomi Chi

growth
by Caitlin Baird

1.
my bones are sick. tumours strain the skin. i can't play volleyball, i can't stand in choir practice, my mother drives me to school. i like the part when she signs the papers: yes, cut. when the doctors count you down to sleep you feel important. i don't like how they won't let you wear a bra because of the metal. it makes a person conscious of their new tits, triangular and sensitive, puffy. my mother will only let me buy white bras anyhow.

2.
Grace says the material/mind dualism is a lie spread by the gnostics, who were no better than alchemists, who were no better than scientists flesh is your soul made into meat i am fat because i love sin purge your stubborn pride but i hate the acid in my throat, want to kiss girls, want to hold girl-hands, want an extra roll at dinner, want to bloom with pleasure: cream puffs and roast potatoes and dumplings until the jaw is gone, the clavicle cannot be felt, the hipbone hidden in soft cheeses, puddings, breads to flower in the stomach, the thighs push against each other, the legs always open, wine and prosciutto and caramels unwrapping them one/one/one directly into the mouth, the arms swell inflated water wings yes push me into the harbour and on its salt and my own body i will float away from this land away from this life away from this ending world

Caitlin Baird is co-founder of baldhip magazine, former EIC at The Warren Review, and former lead editor for poetry at This Side of West. Her poetry has appeared in Quaint Magazine, Vagabond City Lit, and elsewhere. She lives online @bairdsandbees and irl on Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ territory, where she produces the Rabbit Hole reading series. caitlinbairdpoetry.tumblr.com.

Nomi Chi is a multidisciplinary visual artist and tattooer currently residing in Vancouver, Canada.  Chi graduated from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2015 with a BFA in illustration, and has participated in gallery exhibitions throughout Canada, the U.S.A and parts of Europe. Chi is also SAD Mag's featured artist for the month of June. Read an interview with them here.