Portal To Hell as Self Portrait // Girl, What That Hellmouth Do? - OTHERSIDE

Portal To Hell as Self Portrait // Girl, What That Hellmouth Do?

BY

jd hegarty

|

18 lines

I didn’t ask to be made of wanting:

carved open with double edged desire,

riddled with scars—exit wound erotica.

To be so hungry that a hundred hands

can’t quell the ghosts in my throat. Can’t

keep my pretty mouth shut. Wipe clean

the jagged, toothy grin. My body

pulses pandemonium. Tumult. Heat.

Blood. Teeth. Hands. My skin

is so slick with craving. I am so hungry.

Heartbreak, and the flood, and the

fall from grace; I didn’t ask to be a monstrous

thing. Lonely and stitched from impulse

and yearning: a bottomless pit where angels

foster their favorite vice. The tender

touch of shameless hands. I am

so hungry. I know I’m a woman

because I want to eat you alive

Copyright © 2026 by

jd hegarty

jd hegarty

jd hegarty (she/they) is a poet, an anarchist, and a sunflower living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. jd’s work can be found in Name & None, Crab Orchard Review, Mortar Magazine, 45th Parallel, Inscape and elsewhere. Their first chapbook, On Passing, was published by Red Bird Chapbooks in 2017 and their self-published chapbook of sad gay love poems, the clearest blue, is available for free at jdhegarty.com.