Alison Landes
New Rule
Pussy grabs
at the air.
House not mine
body not mine
I belong to men like
I always have.
I am sitting a gay couple’s
house. Their fur children.
I get up. Where the sun hits the window
my pajamas are a pantsuit.
Dogs bark to be let out
of their bodies. Would they catch my blood
in their mouths?
I cannot bleed
in this world. The dirt is too
hard. The paper too
thin. I will call animals
my children, too.
There is no other way.
I turn on the tap,
pop the aluminum bubble,
swallow the pill. I am an hour too early
but later than I can imagine.
Alison Landes is a women’s health nurse and cat mom living in San Francisco. She has appeared nowhere but at the bedside. She writes on the themes of trauma, womanhood, and the moon.
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