18 Nov Shrew, By Christina Lanni
Poisonous
saliva slips
between your teeth.
Mouths hungry
for parts of a body
but not a soul, not a mind,
not a word:
Butterflies
swarm around me
then fall
to the ground
as a caterpillar.
I climb
trees forty feet tall
that shrink
into blades of grass.
I submerge
in freezing lakes
and wash up on a shore
with a crimson sand
shower curtain.
I meet women
behind peeling wallpaper
and green knights
who call
for my head. Searching
my mind for a sound.
Yes, I say, anything
that screams “women behaving
badly” Burned,
tied over the flames,
tried over the flames.
Trapped in the kiln
a woman stands,
now a statue;
immovable,
a work of art,
but void of life.
You hold me close,
exhale, as your arms
become chains crossing
my body: announcing
“this next trick is
the taming
of something wild.”