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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.

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