The Line is Scored

by Mytili


ammunition advocacy                                                            

        still wild to me

                the man after dancing

and drought-sought downpour

        "at least you're a white woman

                who looks me in the eye"

talk rungs climb to

        transfiguration beyond gender

                a teacher said you

women need guns and

        study how to shoot                                                     

                not hesitate historical

force implies that everyone

        has one in West Philadelphia

                windows a parallel religious

text I submit to editorial

        conspiracy that slices

                sound volatizes the inner

ear full testimony failed

        to read ethnicity's face-

                down interpreters my lovers                                    

in the diasporic loom or

        mountainside could I could I

                kid you martial

arts could kill or

        defend but add it to

                weapons and be secure

says my heart's marginal

        a kid could be anyone

                or yours would be a

trespassing poet second-rate
                                                                               
        subtitles to my formerly

                masculine throat easy reel

explosion role if you take

        my hand deliberately

                is that a safe space

is that our signatures intertwined

        "hate-crime" and "love-crime"

                and I'll-defend-your-peace-of-mind

suddenly tele-visible

        open-air stadiums
                                                                               
                promise-keeping better begetters

don't aberrate a crazy american

        method of driving

                behind an expanding

problem emergency now

        the line is scored

                the battery spent

a face I ask for

        motivated sight