Narwhal Talk by Em Dial

a bitch is lonely most of the time

seagulls circle but they’re just looking for the tusk 

mom warned me bout that

they don’t know i got ears cuz all they see is the point

Hunted cunt Hunted cunt Hunted cunt

Caw-caw     Caw-caw     Caw-caw       ​i know

what they mean when they say pretty

they always draw me beluga white even

though a bitch is mottled and freckled

wonder of nature // freak of nature

just tell me i don’t belong here and get on with it

rare aka exotic aka other aka 

none of this earth can be yours

tantalizing extraterrestrial seductive un/natural 

phenomena prehistoric jezebel marvel of evolution 

the ocean’s cut and paste accidental siren

HEADLINE: Part-Whale, Part-Unicorn, All-Parts Allure

HEADLINE: Captain Ahab’s New Side Piece Surfaces Off Greenland 

HEADLINE: NSFW You Won’t Believe This Picture of a Unicorn of the Sea

Unicorn of the Sea

i can have either a name or a home // never both

curse of the incongruent body 

makes me eternal comparison

last time a man asked what i was i said

narwhal ​he said ​No ​i said ​what i meant is Part rubber 

receptacle Part silence with     Just a hint

of sword ​you should have seen the way his lips hooked into

a smile

jaw of lampoon teeth all pointed 

at me

Em Dial (she/they) is a queer, triracial, chronically ill poet, educator, and earth-worker born and raised in the Bay Area of California. A 2020 Kundiman Fellow and recipient of the 2019 Mary C. Mohr Poetry Award, her work is also appears in Tinderbox Poetry Journal and Crab Creek Review.