to c.e.
When a man says knife
is no form of seduction
he means he’s never been
split. But doesn’t everyone
have a seam? Unravel
to dark sugar?
//
He tore a hole where there was
no hole, a dagger flat
against my tongue. Was it
violence? Yes. Also
I found a name then, became
stranger to everyone but me.
When a hole is open, anyone can use it.
I can cleave, push inside.
//
Once, I only ate what wouldn’t
nourish. I had one mouth. Grew
thin as a wire. Boy,
in the beginning, a blade
severed the line, made you
a body & isn’t that
when you learned hunger?
Cameron Awkward-Rich is the author of Sympathetic Little Monster (Ricochet Editions, 2016) and the chapbook Transit (Button Poetry, 2015). A Cave Canem fellow and poetry editor for Muzzle Magazine, Cam's poems have appeared/are forthcoming in The Journal, The Offing, Vinyl, Nepantla, Indiana Review, Drunken Boat, and elsewhere. Cam is currently a doctoral candidate in Modern Thought & Literature at Stanford University and has essays forthcoming/in Science Fiction Studies and Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.