Knife

Amy Polisso

In the dream I am lost

I am lost in these woods, my legs so

heavy, bare feet slipping

on fiddleheads and maiden's hair ferns

I feel his head swelling

a finless fish

an old man becomes a fetus

My belly

a tangle of briar

barbed wire, fishhook fence

My cervix a locked gate

My womb a barrel of brine

His hands turning

to fingerless buds

He's the size of an apple

my father is simmering

is rotting in my belly

A knife

I want a knife

I want to squat against a tree

the blade against my skin

to cut the shape of a house

to carve doors and windows

a way out.


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©Copyright Amy Polisso