how to work around the bodies in the walls
Kristy Bowen
Start small. The woman in the pantry
leaves footprints through the flour.
Handprints on the window you can’t clean,
Can’t even touch without ringing in your ears.
The man on the stairwell who grabs
your ass on the way up. The baby crying
in the bottom drawer of the dresser.
If you want to open the fridge,
you have to move the bedraggled family
of four who crouches in the corner.
They wail all night. Throw spatulas
and slotted spoons against cupboards
and eat all the butter. The tall man
in the shower. The starlet in your bed.
There’s a woman under the sycamore tree
who stares and stares at the man on the porch
with a rifle. It’s so loud sometimes,
their fighting. The way they chorus
before dawn and lie down for the day.
The child in the thicket covered in berries
or blood. The girl in the mirror, circles
under her eyes that may have been you,
may have been a ghost. How she looks
through and through.
A writer and book artist, Kristy Bowen creates a regular series of chapbooks, zines, and artist books She blogs about writing and art at dulcetly: notes on a bookish life .and runs dancing girl press and studio, an indie press and design studio. Bowen is the author of twelve collections of poetry/prose/hybrid work, both traditionally published and DIY, including the recent SEX & VIOLENCE (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), AUTOMAGIC and ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MONSTER (dancing girl press & studio, 2022).