s a r a h b a r t l e t t

s a r a h b a r t l e t t
On Your Heels
	I feel the nip of God Teeth like a noose inside the animal another whole animal grazing on fear and milk Your skin spread out by the fire a luxury of salt Love rhymes with surgical realities I keep writing it down and losing the piece of paper Stop saying why did we have to meet like this We met and loss accumulated its toys decorated the front yard with flamingos I'll marry you here I'll marry you because the heart begs to waste itself Coke can crush more blown out than a dead face more perfectly red When I imagine you I imagine a childhood vacant as the inside of a balloon Your face a subtraction calculating until you finally factor yourself out
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SARAH BARTLETT lives in Portland, OR. Her debut poetry collection was the recipient of the Subito Poetry Prize and is forthcoming in 2015. She is the author of two chapbooks, My Only Living Relative, just released by Phantom Books in 2015, and Freud Blah Blah Blah, published by Rye House Press in 2014. She has also co-authored two chapbook collaborations. Her recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in: Lit, Fruita Pulp, Cloudbanks & Shimbleshanks, The Volta, and elsewhere. in issues seven twenty-two

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