3/1/2019 Poetry by Kerri Farrell Foley Darin Barry CC
Apple White My throat exposed Self-inflicted ink stains A dotted line instructing Just the right spot RSVP on my back In felt tip This invitation to slice me open See how deep my rotten goes You are welcome here Write me back Silence is the greatest harm You could do me Iron Bruises with no origin story Corner of table coffee black Slip in the shower blue She doesn't remember Maybe she should see someone Let someone see But there is always a stack of linen to work Press creases from the pale Check for stains Stiff collars Hanged up Correcting deficiencies Supplemental starch Bergamot You can't tell me How to take my tea Don't linger in doorways That you can't remember what my mouth tasted like You drew a line through the room In paint and named it after me Watched me trip over myself Crossing myself To get to you You forced me to go first Upper lip curled More of a snarl than a welcome Then we saw what I was Held my head And rinsed off my smeared war paint You force fed me esteem Eggs with garlic Bergamot sweetened nonsense When I backed into the wall On your side It wasn't you I was edging away from You pressed a book into my hands Don't lose focus Sampled me square by square as I read Then we rewrote the moral of the story All lines blurred All heads bowed all eyes closed You pressed the issue into my flesh I chose you Something neither of us knew at the time When I scaled up to your picque Dizzy with pride And tumbled all the way down You took stories as gospel Wrapped my wrists In holy cuffs of patience Then we committed crimes My hips bruised With your blue thumb prints You took red pens to my early efforts Said try again Stripped me bare of all context When I came to you with revisions We tried again Even as the climax was waning You burned the thousand lines Painted me black and white Scribbled over the name of the self Who forgot herself That let you get to me And I can't tell you How long it's been Don't forget to write That I can remember what your smile looked like Kerri Farrell Foley is the founder and managing editor of Crack the Spine Literary Magazine. Her poetry and short prose has been published in Black Words on White Paper, Short Fast and Deadly, Flash Daily, and others. Her novel “In the Margins” was published in 2013.
Danny Kennedy
3/2/2019 06:31:41 pm
Very deep and thoughtful poetry Kerri. Keep it up. Comments are closed.
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