Have-Reason
The part cannot its part:
why it is kind.
No longer fight
part don’t know why
did not accept it
did not need reason.
Why did not need:
part was not strong.
Now lie on yellow
jersey sheets
do not stretch taut
refuse to accept
want for strong.
Are right not to have it.
Bow-teeth
Lavender interlocking rubber teeth bottoms of sneakers
open my knees so feet can turn over each other
like gears, legs are
for feet. Now standing upright
the teeth stick out at the sides can be seen
what they are for, look like.
We are not like but are what our
doing looks like
crouched between knees: do not think
how upright the jutting of lavender looks
like lavender pattern wove into laces
complements decorates what is already
splayed out
is supposed to.
—
Amanda Auerbach’s first book of poems What Need Have We For Such as We was published by C&R Press in November 2019, and her poems have appeared in Kenyon Review, Paris Review, Fence, and Conjunctions. She is an Assistant Professor of English at Catholic University in D.C.
Photography by: Vlad Tchompalov
