Katie Schmid

GIRLBODY

a body walks in the pink light
dusk before a storm

a truck circles the block
past the body
then circles, again, the body

if the body moves
the truck continues its orbit

if the body does not move
the truck orbits

the truck shimmers
in and out of obscurity

the body holds more matter
is visible
and thus less clean

to say one gives no fucks
betrays the deeply held fuck
the body must give

the body’s fucks coiled
tightly as snakes inside
the den

coiled
as organs everyone
craves to play

it’s complicated in there
but barely visible to the naked
eye

the body tends to its fucks
tender

the body mothers itself
licks itself into health

can the body exist
without the fucks

or will the body
fuckless
wink out into a black hole

too big to contain anything of worth
and therefore endeavoring to contain
every fucking thing

Katie Schmid is a PhD candidate at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. She won the AWP Intro Journals prize in 2011 and has been published in Best New Poets 2009, among other places. Her chapbook, "Forget Me, Hit Me, Let Me Drink Great Quantities of Clear, Evil Liquor" was recently published by Split Lip Press.
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