Two Poems
Words By Eve Kenneally, Art By Ake
Like Two Really Beautiful Dumb Swans
girl lives with mouths
closed, looking all
same, more
human. sun to
its knees, forgets what
language to speak:
sugar & no
pain, pirate
version, rose water,
i shatter. i have been
both. undoing skin,
the letting as
forgetting, cruelty
unknowingly &
everywhere, as if i
was not here
once you left. go
& return the rest, leaving
like telling
everything: to be soft, to
have a body,
to dissolve
Reprise
Inhaling the gray chalk of its ribs I’m afraid to count its mouths I’m
afraid to bend with the copper arch of its cracking spine I’m
afraid to raise my hand I see half your face above mine I’ll
take its legs I need to go farther than it does I need you
to come in I forget what happens every time I open the door