Blood & Bone

A poem by Vanessa Chen

Hidden Deer by Seunghwan Kim

what are we but bones and the caves they inhabit?
how our fat hugs our bloodlines as if they were a precious thing,
every typhoon folds our skin in like laundry
—because sundays are for tidying,
how CPR fractures the ribs and compression stops the bleeding.
sometimes i dream that i can outlast the wind, but i remember
i am a girl.
a good girl, gracious girl,
girl who hangs sins up to dry on the clothing line
—because sundays are for tidying.
who do i tell when i feel girlhood ticking away
between my thighs, or watch as other girls wallow
in a sea of their mothers’ wet sins? please,
let me soften the roadkill for you,
i’ll pleat the wreckage into paper cranes like the way
i was taught when i was still somebody’s daughter.
give me a mouth so i can plead to the moon, teeth
to shred the sky into quarters, so that there is less
space to fall down from.
& if there is still nothing i can outlive,
then dig me a grave and let me call it my own,
maybe then my bones can carry the world on their back.