in church I was told I was onlygood for sinking so as a childI skipped Sunday school broughta girl from class down with meand we slicked our small bodiesthrough the vent in the doorto the empty daycare suckedsweetmilk bottles meant for babiessince we still were babies toothe butterfly of our hips had notyet opened with short hairwe still looked like little boysin the first sex dream I rememberI was alone a penis hung uselessbetween my adolescent legsunwieldy gray and hungryas a catfish I had to feed myselfand when I woke I knew I belongedat the bottom of some murky depthneeded a wider mouth I stilldon’t know whose body I belong tomine or the ones who’ve beeninside it or the ones I’ve beeninside desire like this should betoo slippery a thing to have finsas sharp as these if you hold meby my softer parts I’ll still try to sliceopen your palm even whenyou love me right I thrash
Bottomfeeder
Feature Date
Series
Selected By
Share This Poem
Print This Poem
“Bottomfeeder” from What Good Is Heaven by Raye Hendrix.
Published by Texas Review Press in September, 2024.
Copyright © 2024 by Raye Hendrix.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Raye Hendrix is the author of What Good Is Heaven, which was selected by Texas Review Press to represent Alabama in the Southern Poetry Breakthrough Series (2024). Also the author of two chapbooks, their poetry has appeared in American Poetry Review, 32 Poems, The Journal, Poet Lore, Poetry Northwest, and elsewhere. Originally from Alabama, Raye currently lives in Knoxville where she teaches at the University of Tennessee.
“What Good is Heaven offers an extended meditation on mercy, and a tribute—courageous and stunning—to the people and places that raise us. Utterly transporting, drenched in both the dazzling and the disastrous, this remarkable debut conjures an atmospheric and personal South that is deeply queer and kindred, full of animals, hymnals, and heat. In Hendrix’s capable hands, one is pulled forward, rapt, through many dangers. I fell into the world of these poems with my senses awakened, heart beating fast. This book, and the survival at its heart, will become a part of you.”
—Gabrielle Bates, author of Judas Goat (Tin House, 2023)
“An astonishing, knock-out collection of poems. This is what I want most in a book—visceral poems that are acutely alive and wrestling with the world and ourselves. These poems tackle the violence of the Deep South, which is the violence of America, and do not look away. Raye Hendrix writes like a boxer fights—with courage, grit, grace, tenderness, and an unforgettable urgency. This is why we come to poetry in the first place: to feel something, to be changed.”
—Ansel Elkins, author of Blue Yodel (Yale Younger Poets Prize 2015)
Poetry Daily Depends on You
With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.
