By Joanna Valente
Something fell on Lincoln Ave / Mammoth teeth
in rock salt in lime in a whale’s belly / a wooden
chair breaks under weight /
Paid $25 for avocado n’ fish n’ yucca n’ lemons
to feed humans saying / don’t let me be lonely 1
when the tonality shifts / it is easier to be
evasive than to tell any truth /
& lack of truth can be blamed on brokeness
2 yrs ago was 2 yrs ago / not unremembered
in teeth / in tonal changes / over
landmasses, sea-stuff / Still I carry his name
in my cervix / at night peeling my eyes like onion
skinning off lost papers / they disappear /
hope they disappear / Cannot dream anything
in color except scribbled words (who’s biography?) /
red ink that writes don’t let me be
1.Claudia Rankine, Don’t Let Me Be Lonely, An American Lyric
Joanna C. Valente is a MFA candidate in Poetry Writing at Sarah Lawrence College, where she is also a part-time mermaid. She founded and currently edits Yes, Poetry. She can be found at http://joannavalente.com.
The 22 Magazine 