“…how to look// into the abyss without leaning forward?”
~ Tarfia Faizullah
In these tellings, use
of third person omniscient
makes it seem that the narrating
eye has seen beyond the dented
surface of our lives, privy
to thought before the thought
is even formed— But how
could it know the smell
of the flower that bloomed
in the center of my chest
then wilted like the swift
infliction of bayonet wounds?
And that moment when I
choked on air and believed
I was dying? You took me
in your arms without knowing;
but how could you? The noises
made in the throat sound
almost the same in panic,
as in the panic of pleasure.