Rina Shamilov

MOODPRISM

We techno-stained : skin
Cradling light from refracted
Bodies & their malicious
Bloats
I am fracturing within I become
Shell-like;
My porcelain teeth stinging
What the objects are I find
Inside my body
; a stream of echoes & gurgles & my
Rubber skin gliding at a rhythm
I rearrange
The sound of veins combusting elastic
Carrying noise-filled cysts

––––

LINGUISTIC LICK

Cyrillic vowel recycles on my tongue
Clumping overtime bacterial
You kiss away the
Stale of my breath in the morning

I inject your hormone into my throat
Hear it sing & echo
As a rock to ripple
I swallow what’s left of
Your secreting shadows

Glazing my stomach in
Sweat & evening’s curdling
Remnants
While our ligaments lie
Bare as winter-thickets

––––

Rina Shamilov is a poet and visual artist from Brooklyn, New York, born to Soviet immigrants. She is the author of My Mother's Armoire (Bottlecap Press, 2024) and Hungering: Dance of the Figurines, which was named a finalist in Black Lawrence Press' Immigrant Writing Series in 2025. Her work is either found (or forthcoming) in The Talon Review, Antiphony Press, Dreamboy Book Club, Ritual Dagger, and Ranger, among others. Her work has been recognized The Academy of American Poets, and she received a Best of the Net nomination.

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