this dull circle of porcelain

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 purée 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.-