THIS IS HOW WE SAY _

Emily Pont

forever – which once I thought
could have been a kind of mercy –
here is and will always be
the wide-open mouth -
swallowing sentences
written in vapour and cloud -
here is and will always be
substitute desire –
I expect she’s wearing lipstick
& now it’s all between your legs
like shot-open wounds -
or maybe you ignored
the dirt under her fingernails.
Either way, there are still two mouths
drowning in the same name & no –
I won’t be buried six feet under for nothing –
not without having been opened & more than
half a person – blares through the speakers
of a man’s car, who I don’t know –
but he’s looking at me like I have an answer
and I haven’t the heart to tell him
I’m just as lost – just as desperate to be seen &
destroyed, maybe only for the sake of saying
I am – I am – I am