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LISTEN, MELISSA —

your mother never

had your father – hidden

inside of you – you still

who do not know the face

you are inside – who is he

inside her –

she who would hide

by never hiding – if you loved

her you would cover

her – both – face

him inside your own hidden

never inside –

her face held

you longer than you

knew how to be held – she

who could not keep

the face that grew

from her inside – this

is how you see

her now – a whole

opened by hunger – all of her

wanting

to know who would take

the time to find you – you who

know she’s still inside – please

stay her there – face

the face you can no longer

see – you

who has not yet learned to say

HIT ME

the blue

gentian

lived through

fire and

it is

blooming

a mylar

balloon bouquet

someone made

a baby

drifting

across

a Nevada

highway against

the hood

of a van

softly

come apart

— when to if never

I am speeding —

into mourning

shaped air — name

your sounds grass

against rock —

the choice to become transition or kill

yourself but death is not death if you are

dying a death

in which to be alive

— again name apocalypse I

love you — begun wrong

body war — noise eternal

in the reach of it — proof

edge — audacious — holy

unmade to say I —

return to ISSUE ONE

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