GIRL VS. GHOST
dangle me into the belly
of your beast
dare me to be the girl
who doesn’t know her mother
you can skin my pearl
you can split my spine
just promise to sew me up
with a fresh axis
one that spins
to the tired bellow
of territory undiscovered
praise the life i live
pity the life i learn from
watch them braid
into a hungry sin
see how far i’ll go
to show you bravery
see how far i’ll go
to show you fear
i’ll move my hips
until i feel the world
go limp beneath me
i’ll chop down every tree
just to hear the sap sing
Susan Milchman’s poetry has appeared in Glass, A Journal of Poetry, bramble & thorn (an anthology from Porkbelly Press), Rogue Agent, Rust+Moth, Rufous City Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Minneapolis by way of Washington, D.C. and has a degree in Journalism from the University of Maryland. Find her on Instagram @susan.milchman.
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