In the Dark I Am
E. D. Watson
in the dark, i am the only one
who knows what i look like
who i am when the light
goes, and i become myself again
my edges melt, i smooth out
beneath the quilt not man nor
woman but something poured
something both and
something else
hands full of my own flesh
i hold myself whole, complete
in the dark i am not beautiful
not freak, but warm fact
the way thighs are facts
and feet, the way muscle tied
to bone is fact: great slabs of meat
or slender ribbons among the fingers
in the dark i am a miracle
i have hands
that know how to fold
a map i don’t need
in the dark how to find
my plains and falls, the river
of milk in my veins, how to
drink there, how to bathe
i love myself
i know the way
i say like a spell in the dark
one hand finds the other
and i am a circle, a moon
a harp.
E. D. Watson (she/they) earned their MFA from Texas State University and is currently in training with the Institute for Poetic Medicine. Their work has been published or is forthcoming in a number of journals, including PANK, The Langdon Review, The Healing Muse, and others. They work as a night clerk in a public library to pay the bills, and play the cello for fun.