Rachel McKibbens
Originally published in The Evergreen Review Issue 126 in 2011.
She flew to a bed six countries away.
Cried so hard her face slid off.
A flower boy hammered a bowl of milk
where her mouth once was.
She amputated every body part
her lover's mouth had thought to kiss.
As she lay there on the operating table,
the surgeon smiled at the luscious heart,
sleeping in its bed of milk. Plump as a partridge.
Stronger than a butcher block.
