Archival Footage of a Necessary Outburst
       

It's hard to know what lives
in my hands when I'm not paying
attention to who I claim to be.
I never said I wanted any of your
swagger because I don't. You have
the nerve to hold a morning glory
to my face and tell me to breathe in
as if my senses need permission.
Perhaps I am being unreasonably
defiant but that is my victory today.
Tell me about your own defiance
while I stand here bleeding in my pants.
That is another victory I can claim
and I will. I worry I am living
perpetually in corpse pose—
did I deep sleep inside
the moment or miss it hook
and line? How do you feel
unfetishized and embalmed
by your bloodline? It is a privilege
to have a name at all. I build
a temperate zone around you
just to watch how two belts
of latitude rip you apart.

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Copyright © 2017 Anne Cecelia Holmes All rights reserved
from Gulf Coast
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission