I Gave You My—
BY VALERIE WETLAUFER
carefully folded, swooned, postpartum
posthaste—
my letter to you, I gave—
curious, you said uncanny you
said the color of my eyes in this light
is a different shade of green said
you don’t eat meat but you wear
leather outside the birds
& inside the sun on the chair
& my thighs spread &
stick to the plastic &
you said you loved
it & the ampersand & my swoon
silently inside my skirt & the ochre
on the building changes to umber
in the light & the tree outside is
bare & I am, my foot inside my slipper
my toes curled behind & ow & yes
& some days are sunny days & some
days are
Valerie Wetlaufer, “I Gave You My—” from Mysterious Acts by My People. Copyright © 2014 by Valerie Wetlaufer. Reprinted by permission of Sibling Rivalry Press.
Source: Mysterious Acts by My People (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2014)