A Poem by Lo Kwa Mei-en
by Mark Bibbins, Editor
Passion with an Operating Theater Underneath It
Every day is take your knife to work day Every
Body begs its answer — even hard ones —
Hard of need, hard of hand in hand, harder up
Than a good night in a short glass That’s my
Preferred exorcism meant excision method doll
Who will say please with her eyes rolled back in
The tomb Medical blood miracles and Marys down
Mary is down with the boys this time, mister
Magdalene, mourning you I mourned you too wet
To stay clean until the very earth wiped
Down and out One outtake of ethic length where
I love you but still count down from five
Like a hero who can count to six to save her life
It’s okay Every sundown I fall down too
Stainless to be silver or risen thing like the sea
Or melodic in place of what fell back
In place of a heart a thing that can breathe on its own
Sell that out and we can roll back stones
Don’t you ever wonder where all that red went
Don’t you love me too much to look
But I sing There’s room in me for one last knife
And the view from the balcony always moved you
You will find more poems here. You may contact the editor at [email protected].
Lo Kwa Mei-en is the author of Yearling, forthcoming from Alice James Books.