Poetry by Ann E. Michael

Edna Winti CC




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Claims She Makes

    1]
her brain works differently 
from other people’s. that’s why.

she does pay attention she says    it’s just
what she notices             surprises.

her thoughts she says lie close beside
her body’s urge to act.      to escape hurt.

    2]
“I’m not a behavior problem”      she says
“I’m a skiff going over ice floes during storm.

I’m Tierra del Fuego,” she says she saw its
seas churning in a movie.    and it felt true.

    3]
when she hit the river it was colder
than she expected and hard as ice

she could have broken like a dry leaf 
fallen could have buried her mind

in water             but not for love

    4]
why she thinks as she does why animals
trust her presence why she winds up and down

because she says there’s more than brain
in us                      there’s also          gut and heart

the horrible endlessness of want.

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Ann E. Michael lives in eastern Pennsylvania. Her latest poetry collection (2024) is Abundance/Diminishment. Her work has appeared in Ninth Letter, One Art, Ekphrasis Review, and many others, as well as in numerous anthologies, six chapbooks, and two previous collections. She chronicles her writing, reading, and garden on a long-running blog at www.annemichael.blog



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