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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