Categories: Poetry

A Curse for Pressure

You say there is nothing as beautiful as                   the dry cracking,
the callus of a hard day’s work.                                       My hands speak back through

creases, the folds you bury your face in.                  Every sound
pressuring flesh like a magnet,                                        breaking skin, snapping

a rib that no longer carries                                                 current. I dive to

beat                                                                                                        myself at the bottom. I comb
my hair strands                                                                            with useful fingers. Anguilliform means

resembling an eel—                                                                  nothing beautiful—
this slimy new ocean, this                                                  dark fertile magic, the scaleless serpent

air is all                                                                                               wrong here.

Alli

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Alli

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