Blanks

by Cristina Nehring (July 2024)

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Experience
Has made my affections gentler.
The bold brave touch
That was my pride and trademark once
Has softened
Its grip.
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Today I imitate E.T.
The tentative finger crooked and long
Like a question mark—
May I? It asks.
You won’t strike?
You won’t cringe?
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Safeway sells bite-size kisses,
Big feelings come in small parcels,
Small words, easy to swallow.
“What nice socks you have,”
Says Little Red Riding Hood to the Wolf;
Say I to you,
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“What nice poems you send.”
Sugar and water drip from my mouth.
My blood stays in my veins.
I won’t spit blood just now,
Nor spill kisses
On your clean and contemplated day.
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No, we shall trade in trifles—
Discrete, individually wrapped chunks
Of Emily Dickinson—
With lots of dashes
Spaces pauses blanks
For all those things we’re leaving out.
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Fill in the blanks,
Scholar, stranger.
You do it for her.
Do it, do it, for me.
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