Rummy Park, 23
(Against the Gods)

by Rebecca Lu Kiernan

What makes me alive,
How can I contain it
So it doesn't bleed
Into you,
And parts of you becoming me,
Not the way I am,
But how you see me?

What makes me human?
How to seal it off
In case you become merciless
Reducing me to some ragged beast
Busy with survival needs,
Dreaming not of love,
Breathing not
Poetry.

What makes me a woman?
How to hold it?
In case angels ascend
Leaving me guardless
In this park,
In the surrender
Of willow limbs
Reaching for the grave, untended,
Just honeysuckle to whisper
In the stir of midnight air,
Never forget
We have walked
Against the gods.