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In Which Case I Could Stay/Open<br />
See, my heart hammers. I’ve planted it in your fingertips.<br />
Found hearts flutter well. Other hearts bruise easy, and sometimes<br />
bruises are bruises, not symbols. All you do here<br />
is bend down. Like, about to pray.<br />
The surgeon says it’s difficult to perform<br />
surgery on a scarred area. The surgeon says scar tissue<br />
is very angry to be cut.<br />
Once, a man manhandled me, took a palm chisel<br />
to my lips. It was tolerable as now<br />
there is this lux wavelength I share. You stand there, occupied<br />
near pedestals, or by the hors d’oeuvres in the corner,<br />
snacks and chips with their cornucopia whirlings,<br />
like blind squalling kittens or dolphins caught in net.<br />
Tina in the gift shop runs the cash register.<br />
The tune looping perpetually in the utility room, not<br />
her favorite. Bee Gees were her mother’s<br />
generation, the one that went without education<br />
to educate their own. It costs<br />
three cents to make a penny. Found hearts<br />
flagged in concrete.<br />
I’ve told her since I arrived she can touch me.<br />
And I’m telling you: I am the one you are allowed<br />
to touch. I have family.<br />
My husband made me the box I am today.<br />
Put hinges to my spine<br />
for you to swallow my amplitude.<br />
He said, If you can’t do something safe<br />
for me and delightful for the two of us<br />
then I can’t live this way. Which was when I made up<br />
my mind to go public. I like candor. Nothing snickers at me<br />
as my words cascade in a rush, when my mouth<br />
can’t keep up with my heart. Which is why, if you don’t heed me<br />
I will up my tongue and trumpet<br />
until everyone noses over, and gossips we’ve come together.<br />
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