she was just
an infant. a girl child.
she was born wrong, cat-mouthed,
with a hole in her throat
that didn’t stop her from
suckling and growing
stronger every day. the fact that
she continued to live
was the insult
added to the injury
of her birth.
Tag: collegiate pretension
(Skull) No. 1
You bare your cracked mouth
in a yellowing arc of bone.
I shine my worn eyes white
on you – pared and slender man,
and in your sockets’ sink-basin shadows
see my own drawn heart.
My gestures dwindle like the heart
of a skeleton; your broken mouth
makes my fingers half a shadow
of slim cigarette bone.
and I can’t wrap their secrets like a dead man
would – you rolled them tight and white.
R. Brookes McKenzie 