the girls speak to each other via the common tongue
Ellen Welcker
yes
I am here
here with my
weighted, fraught
no explanation
endless iterations
infinity of slants
that all sound like asking
to become feral is
to metamorphose
with and into
sound
how I know
how I know
what you’re doing
with your mouth
a slow build to recognizable
strings
a sister is a kind of a sister
for talking gibberish
in supermarkets
or to love and miss
to rhino and horse
to hate and grass-hate
I never wanted to die, like
that scrape on my tender under
never wanted to kill myself
talk gibberish in supermarkets
breastfeed
incite
language and trees
don’t want to be “used”
I do not crave
a fake beef braid
just a board to break
w my mind
a little nurse in the eye
for sadness
~~~~~
Ellen Welcker is the author of Ram Hands (Scablands Books, 2016) & The Botanical Garden (Astrophil Press, 2010). This poem is part of a book-length poem called “The Pink Tablet.” She lives in Spokane, WA.