attendance

Isabelle Khoo-Miller | October 2020

hey now

who told you you could walk 

like that

what snake

     invisible and loud

followed a moon and stars into your body

[right between your legs

of course]

and filled you with this     course

fleshy     soft     bullet-resistant     audacity?

how were you and the snake 

     demonized and fermented

until

after the borders

and egos were transformed

you both, inseparably tethered

fed all the elderly and hungry

(who live and protect

the land in which you 

were buried)

who asked you how it felt to

decompose a little?

why didn’t you 

answer

who     made you think it was 

okay to let the longing

of a kidnapped auntie out?

     don’t you know what

locks are for?

don’t   you   know   why   these   things   are   said   in   whispers?   why   these   things   are   yelled   and   not   even   heard   as   whispers?

oh please

speak up   child, we  can  barely

hear  you  running  away.

your  running  away  can 

only  make  ground  out  of 

that  numb  blindness  that

        just  seems  to  be  everywhere.

everywhere  except  the

tearing  of  seams

the  stitching  you  watch  undo

[among other

things]

20 20 vision

memory chooses it’s moments

whether we choose to look or not