She said between Part 1

What’s the use of going on about
the linking of flesh to flesh when
one’s own habitus wanders around
muttering to itself “today you will
not raise your hand but tomorrow
you will see around your head a
coronet of deer in the fields
both safe and in danger
simultaneously”

I have no reason to be called
an angel when I walk outside
I have taken the recommended
pills to make myself a chimney
I have stopped taking these to
make myself a vase in expectation

In the town square
there are many ways of crossing
without setting foot on the grass
courthouse church library
church church Catholic church
Dunkin Donuts Edible Arrangements

To the extent that we agree with
the pull of skin around our chests
there will be men holding flowers
and women holding flowers
and everyone else peels an apple
knowing that allegiance is a luxury
the center-justification of
this poem is a luxury
hey do you get it // do you get it

She said between Part 2

clap together the rings
which vee between the knuckles

that lead in a well-formed punch

what you are clocking is your thighs
meager and metallic thinking

this is not what I mean by convergence

this is not what I mean when I say
I am a woman because in fact

what I mean is that the landscape

rushing by the window
turns me into a mild parchment

into birch bark in its loose embrace

to practice in the mirror
I am a man / I am a man / I am a

to sit in the tub full of pennies and take

them into yourself as blood medicine
arteries hardening in greenbronze

fists curling around a note

carved into a pale stem which reads
today you may do as you wish