this dull circle of porcelain
13
Alexander Benedict Content Warning: Graphic depiction of bulimia stuttering can you hold my hair back lifting the flimsy plastic seat collecting short black hair behind your ears over ridges of your spine pushing my fingers through your roots gently the tile floor is cold against our knees against our eyes whispering the reeds give way to wind and give the wind away the reeds give way to wind and give the wind away teeth rattling shoving middle and forefinger through your throat shaking skin molting puking into this dull circle of porcelain this surrogate altar filling with clumps of oatmeal fruit loop purĂŠe and splintered gerund phrases this is an act of forgetting marinara and half-digested word fragments this is an act of remembering stomach acid coating pink gums shedding shoulders swaying squeezing my wrist slumping over the faux-marble sink washing your face pouring out a half-cap of Listerine tilting your jaw to fluorescence gurgling spitting out the remaining taste of your insides into this circle of dull porcelain reciting the reeds give way to wind and give the wind away the reeds give way to wind and give the wind a way
A. R. Ammons, Small Song, https://allpoetry.com/Small-Song
-Alexander Benedict is a sophomore transfer student from Carrboro, NC, pursuing a major in English and Comparative Literature and a minor in German.-
