PIGGY IN THE MIDDLE

Bruised knees, burnt
Knuckles. He says: I did it
Because I love you.

(The curtain flutters) I say:
I know. The gist: you on the table;
Five staples in your chest,

Around you like arms:
The curtain.
We stand at its edge.

Jagged piece of glass, frail,
Snide, in the shallow bowl
By your bedside.

The room filled up like lungs—
We with silence. My hands:
Clasped in a lap you know

Well. My mother’s grandmother’s
Crystal sherry glass
Slipping from his fingers,

Shards winking like so man
Brilliant lights—now, here,
Everything lit up and white.

Skin, it turns out, parts
Like a mouth does:
Willing, very red.

Whispers, sighs,
Says my name
In a bed.

Your curtain hangs limp as a
Rebuke, a wan, white flag—
“Men are still animals;” wise words

Said out loud. “Sometimes they forget,
When, wanting,
They don’t know how not to pounce.”

Red cuticles, raw
Tongue. He says: I did it
Because I love you.

(Looking at the curtain.)

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Katherine, old enough, somewhere sunny ✯ IG: @sorrelseashell

“Katherine is a neuroscience and literature student who misses home very much. She is a lover of stories and astrocytes, and big green fields.”