Today's poem is by Sarah Rose Nordgren
The Performance
It's not right that she should do this
to her body as she speaks,but it's the only way we can understand her.
We who weren't raised on sandand cherry-pits. Whose stepfathers
held their tempers.The South is a mean place
we forget about. The windowsboarded up all over town. She says,
dogs chased her down the tar-soaked road like devils. Each dog with three
heads, three tails. She says,we might've mocked her story,
but never now. First, she strikes nailsagainst her chest like matches.
Then, when we think we can'ttake more from her, she eats
her own hands. Who are we nowto say that art should not destroy us?
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Copyright © 2013 Sarah Rose Nordgren All rights reserved
from The Literary Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission
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