Intimacy Suplex

we all did it because of Shawn Michaels:

we put the metal ring through the tender part

what once connected us to life & pre-life

heartbroken, all the kids wanted to be

the Heartbreak Kid back in his glory days

we imagined descending from the rafters

like zebra-print angels We all heard

the sweet crack of the kick, a body

crashing through panes of sugar glass

gloves / sterile needle / hot fluorescent

the doctor ties the cord into a knot &

snip a balding man, early 30s, slips

a long, cold needle through the scar

it’s mostly anticipation, mostly long inhales

& sharp exhales Just a quick sting close

your eyes, tuck your chin & fall to the mat

belly to belly, in the center of the ring,

a man clasps you between his shoulders

& snaps you into the mat long inhale

mostly but something in that second snags

feel that, warm like liquid in your gut

like fire spreading slowly, red wet palms

& there tangled in a man’s chest hair

a dangling glimmer of sterling silver

look & see your own cluttered debris

attached to a body that isn’t yours

& the cut tether, the severed connection

& alone now you are re-born just as you were born:

out of flesh & blood, you are reshaped

& you do not walk away without a scar.