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2023 Harold Taylor Prize

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Caelum (The Chisel)

by Karla Myn Khine

 

I sculpt                        when I cut my arm off in a dream The same goes for taking birth control kissing my man and eating fast food I shape fashion madness my own ruts in the system A journal of mine made light of this with a quote from my grandfather a Burmese man whose Buddha cracked twice— once from the British again from the Japanese “You cry like your fingernails are being torn off” Then                I had never noticed how light his touch was and how his lightness             felt like fleets of wind and the throbs they left             (perhaps slight heartbeats)             given through padded rings             that have flipped through many prayer books Who is he now            and those impersonal parts that made him A towel hangs from my mirror             wet from an earlier shower Yesterday’s bang and nail trimmings             sit placidly in a Walgreen’s bag Saltwater crocodiles in a mangrove settle             upon the half-century footprints of military marches Though exigent            I wait until the receding of the universe’s prefectures because the Buddha taught me everything depends on everything else Then I will cut off what fouls my heart           repurpose         remodel it It will be their recreation Now I understand things how they’re all a cause





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