Nothing

by Rebecca Lehmann

I was the mayor
Of no small city

No heavy bridge
No cauterized

Desire. Powerless
And oblique

I shook like a fist
Clenched beneath

A table like a jaw
Clenched in the night

Like the night clenched
Against dawn.

Again, against,
I was raw

And reddened
And split

A contused knuckle
I was small

As a crack on the bridge
Of a battered nose

I hollered
Like the air

In the gap
Of a car door

Flung open on
the highway

Mid fight
And I was the child

Afraid in the back seat
Back seat to

Your chaotic love.

Published on September 8, 2021