MICRO
All I’ve ever offered up in prayer
Never came back as birds.
In my deepest fold I wonder
Lord—is self harm ever devotional or
Is it always a form of possession?
No one cares to make an unremarkable
Gown of their suffering.
Until now, I was so
Sure no one would touch me again.
ESSAY
How we know our bodies comes from the way we are handled, from the way your parents held you to the press of sexual partners. We become ourselves through the experience of skin against other skin.
POETRY
instead of scripture, / i read her body / as my midrash
MICRO
She holds the coins to my weeping willow face / and shows how I will change their shape, / how they will flatten under freight.
