Song for the Black Cat Outside My Mother's Apartment by Kinsale Drake

I want to move through the trees as you do: four palms flush to the earth

Song for the Black Cat Outside My Mother's Apartment

by Kinsale Drake

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We know what it is to not be wanted,
when our bodies are taboo.

Night limbs, how our eyes 
swallow everything.

When I was brought into the world,
I looked back.

The trees were heavy with dark.
They say a wicked woman walks

bad luck. What makes a wicked woman?
Irises green with want, barbed tongues

to catch what's coming.
I want to move through the trees

as you do: four palms flush to the earth,
dark river with two wild torches 

in a corner: living shadow, the same color
as forgetting.

How many lives
can I hold in each chamber

of my heart?