Book of Janus
       

I have seen a man and a woman sewn together
his arm to hers her spine to his
                                          and from behind the one-way glass
which is to them a blind end
I watch them struggle against a red thread
the closeness of skin to skin
and the unbearable sense of trap of constrict of that
which makes the fox gnaw
at his black paw snared in the metal noose.
She had been reaching for a can of tomatoes
when from behind her knee the needle
                                          whipstitched her leg to his.
He had been watching his daughter slide
down the slide
when the slip of the thread pulled him across
Texas Wyoming her body
like an America.
                                          That's how they'll tell it
when they tell it to others
                              who bear similar marks
                              from the tatting of thread.
I have seen them together straining
against their together all together
                  and the woman thinks if she can just get him face to face
                  they might talk this away
                  and the man wants to run but his legs are hers
they are one body at war with the one war we're all in
together all together we're in.

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Copyright © 2013 Rebecca Hazelton All rights reserved
from Vow
Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission