barren fur soft
cadaver
in pieces a
puzzle,
a
lantern
in eyes
instead of candles
to move around a
house
you’ve already memorized,
lipped red
a scandal
in the bedroom,
a subtlety
in grocery aisles—
unmarked but stolen from,
you are
a bank robbed
and feathers plucked
you are all
that makes annihilation
and nothing that lives
without a fight
Notes of a Dirty Young Woman 