On Not Surviving
       

When you look up
rape survivor is always
nestled nearby we are supposed
to have achieved another side
I try to fit the word in my mouth but it grooves
deep through the pinks of my cheeks heavy
on the slab of my tongue I wonder
if I can be a survivor if I haven't survived
anything at all if I'm always the girl
his hips locked against
he buried me
under good sweet dirt
and when I came back spitting up
stones and pulling worms from my hair nobody
even noticed I'd been gone

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from Smoke Girl
Diode Editions
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission