Poems from the 12-Hour Sonnet Contest: Marriage (Scissors), Ella Harrigan

 Ella thought this was the not-as-good of the two sonnets she sent. I really disagree.

MARRIAGE (SCISSORS)

naked in the mirror i cut my hair

with kitchen scissors. i like it here, alone

with just the soft of my arms, the cool air

at my shoulders, my body overgrown.

in the other room you sleep, all hot breath

and fear half-abated, large and grasping.

i walked with you through the valley of death

and we came out of it blistered, gasping.

so you sleep off your sorrows and retreat

to dreams, whose shadow-wounds you'll forget

by waking — while i, in my reflection, meet

them. each malformed, a sculpture mis-set —

i do not miss it. the hair, i mean, the scrape

of brush on scalp. each stroke an ache.

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