Fair enough, let’s speak
of reality, licking the lid
of a yogurt top, black cherry,
I pull a tube from your throat,
it’s easier this way – don’t
eat, don’t breathe, blood-stained
smile, filled with colored glass,
hungry to tap on windows
whispering why?
Just flowers left to rot. Just bones tossed on windswept floors.
Just love (candy-coated, sticky) wriggling from your throat –
If it doesn’t belong,
we cry, rip it out!
Laine Derr holds an MFA from Northern Arizona University and has published interviews with Carl Phillips, Ross Gay, Ted Kooser, and Robert Pinsky. Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming from Antithesis, ZYZZYVA, Portland Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere.