When my body had forgotten its purpose,
When it just hung off my brainstem like whipped mule.
When my hands only wrote.
When my mouth only ate.
When my ass sat, my eyes read,
When my reflexes
were answers to questions we all already knew.
Remember how it was then that you slid your hand
into me,
a fork in the electric toaster of my body.
Jesus,
where did all these sparks come from?
Where was all
this heat?
Remember what this mouth did last night?
And still, this morning I answer the phone like normal,
Still I drink an hour’s worth of strong coffee.
And now
I file.
And now I send an email.
Remember how
my lungs filled with all that everything?
Remember
how my heart was an animal you released from its cage?
Remember how we unhinged?
Remember all the names
our bodies called each other?
Remember how afterwards,
the steam rose from us, like a pair of smiling ghosts?
-Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz
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