Feature: Two Poems by Kristina Naso; Eight Drawings by Mo Costello

Curated by CC Calloway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kristina Naso

 

 

 

the dogs come running

but we’re lucky

we’re wearing jackets strong enough 

their teeth don’t sink into the skin of our arms

something reveals itself to me then

like a bud blossoming

then I hear its growl

like a car rattling from the music on max

it’s soft like the underbelly of a cow

pink like my palms in february

—“their teeth are like children’s.”

and the dogs look at me

the something in my hands rolls over

and it looks like taffy

rises like bread

the dogs chatter their teeth like children on sugar

and I wake up, holding my aching stomach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kristina Naso

 

 

 

I can’t even trust my own sheets anymore

I wake up in a sweat or tangle of my own hair

cheek being chewed for the last few hours

what is the secret to living the longest?

is it praying every morning and every night?

I’d like to think my body would do its best to protect itself

I was in an empty court room

sitting on the bleachers or pews or whatever they’re called

and suddenly a plague doctor becomes the judge

and he comes towards me and tries to shake my hand and when I don’t reach for it he just waves and goes back to the front of the room

cracking the gavel a few times

he speaks too low I can’t hear him and suddenly a troop of monkeys come barreling in with their hoo oo ah ah ah and they all surround me 

Be monkey! Be monkey!

Go back to monkey or we shoot you and you die

suddenly I’m a monkey and I look at my hands covered in hair 

the plague doctor judge is a monkey too now

they ask me to be a witness and I say nothing

dumb monkey

I wake up again in sweats and my jaw hurts 

I can’t help believing that I’m dying every time I get a headache 

or dizzy

or winded going up the stairs

if I die you can promise I will haunt you

my mantra being I told you so I told you so I told you so

I told you so

so ingrained you’ll hear it in the floors you walk on

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kristina Naso is a multimedia artist and poet from Lilburn, Georgia who earned a BFA in photography at the University of Georgia and is currently pursuing an MFA in photography at Pratt Institute. Kristina is currently based in New York City. https://kristinanaso.com/

 

 

Mo Costello is an artist based in Athens, Georgia. http://mocostello.com/