Regulator by Arden Hunter

my lungs are greedy

trained from years of singing and screaming

on stages and cliffs and tendon-strained silence

they expand past my ribs and out into the atmosphere

they are the filament-teeth of a whale sifting the words

of krill for consumption

krill who swim whether inside or outside

my diaphragm flexes and flares ready to pounce

I can’t always hear you but I find other ways

I can taste you as a snake tastes with vibrating guile

and flickers of interest

I'll breathe you in if you let me

convert your stilted stammers into silvered silences

scoop syllables from your cheeks like you store them

hoard them there for me

they’ll pass through my membranes flare in my blood

to excite cells filled with tired phrases and cut through

with commas escape to the sky the stars

if you can don’t dissipate

stay here due to my gasps

for identity my demanding inhalations

will only lessen your impact

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Arden Hunter is an aroace agender writer, artist and performer. With an eclectic range of interests from the horrific to the whimsical, the theme tying all of their work together is an inexplicable and unconditional love for the ridiculous beast that is called 'human'. Find them on Twitter @hunterarden.