PoetryAloud

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Angele Ellis Reads

my invisible woman  

had vulcan green veins beneath her clear carapace
like the ones rising on the back of my hand / flesh i chew raw
in my sleep. no map to anywhere / my aging chrysalis
imperfect as she was perfect / down to implied fingernails
her blank face / bald transparent casing / for a smug pink walnut.

her seven magic openings were soldered with plastic
invulnerable even when i buried her in shaley dirt.
i crowned her with pitchblende / radium trapped in greasy peaks
of luster. her heart was wrapped red meat / while mine turned
lump of black crystals / x-ray power burning through its cracks.

so many times i wanted to travel / to climb out of there.
only once did i come close to the mountainous border.
wellbutrin shot pure night through my willing capillaries
pulling my invisible woman back to her safety box
whose cardboard dark quelled hunger like holy communion.

this is what i never told you / friend i never would have met
when i woke / before the failure on my fissured tongue 
leaked apology / ineluctable acid from its dying 
battery of excuses / memories I could not contain
disappointment tore at me / stripped me like cellophane.


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Angele Ellis

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