Your Own Palm
Copyright © 2017 by Tarfia Faizullah. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on September 28, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.
Copyright © 2017 by Tarfia Faizullah. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on September 28, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.
You hurt my feelings
I say to the trees. You never
ask me how I am I whisper
to the breakfast taco, before
an indelicate but determined bite.
I miss you, I confront
the chair in the stranger’s yard.
Your strong + silly arms. Your sin-sturdy legs.
You only respond
to marrow
scooped clean.
You stare. I touch
your silk. Shiver. Some nights,
you let in a kiss abruptly
through the mask. Pant.
Here, your bread,
sliced into neat warm ovals.
the falling paper flower
the plastic tree branch
the plight of reminiscing
the bureaucracy of kismet
the factories empty of logic
the bins to hold what’s done
the spaceship of butterflies
the video game of intimacy
the series premiere of strife