POETRY

The Word of the Day is “Instigate”

By Marty McConnell     VOLUME 48.3

Vertical Divider
by which I mean, get over here. bring me
everything you left in the mountains

and what ticks under the cherry bedframe.
when you talk about rocks and rivers
I know you mean molars and sweat. here

we are mathematical in our translations.
here nothing means the hollow at the back

of your throat where the fog grows. here
it’s almost as if I didn’t forget the end
of all your stories until you held me down

and bruised them into my thighs. the bite
so full of stones, it’s almost as if

the wind couldn’t undo every knot
we tied. as if we made this bed
before we laid down and started to drown.
MARTY McCONNELL lives in Chicago, Illinois, where she works for a youth and family center. She received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Her work has appeared recently in A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry, City of the Big Shoulders: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry, Indiana Review, Crab Orchard Review, Salt Hill, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Drunken Boat.

VOLUME 48.3