Self-Portrait as Zipper

I can't escape the parting
always caught between my teeth
The Amish forbid me
because my beauty is immodest,
my efficiency ungodly.
The clergy condemn me
because I facilitate stripping.
For this, I will make you more dangerous.
I will be the jagged gangplank
on which you walk away
from your conscience.
Embracing or strangling myself,
I snag and wear and break.
Someone tell the edges
this joining is just temporary,
that the promise of my long body
cannot be kept.

Copyright © 2009 Courtney Queeney All rights reserved
from Black Warrior Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission