violence is a garment on the body (Bhanu Kapil)
I just want you to know where it comes from.
imagine a pit of soil
watch out for the earthworms
spiders larvae the wingless the roots
watch out for delicate stems and snapped off
petals
brain like a garden
it reeks
squashed rhizome
imagine a mother dipped in razors
measure chemicals and lose track of
imbalance
try to belong here
here with the lopsided poets
here with Brautigan and aroma of Plath’s poison
here with Hemingway and Woolf’s drown
here with Mishima and Thompson’s bullet
here with Berryman and Kosinski’s suffocation
here with Sexton and Gogol’s starvation
here with mangled metaphors and disillusioned stanzas
here with your own tongue swallowed on the eve of resolution
want to memorize your pill collection
cut you open
put lips to bloodied forearm and cracked clavicle and climb over the edge of any bridge before the costumed men carry you toward the rubber and drool
Aimee Herman 