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by Clara Trippe 6 months of slush instead of sidewalk. Summer town, and little to do inside when the weather turns. I am taken to a museum and my socks get wet on the way. I am used to wet socks; I don’t yet know of trench foot growing in the perpetual damp of old war fronts and, later assumed, Michigan. It’s many years after that I watch between my toes for the first signs of dying skin. Scientific word for whatever phobia makes you fear your feet blooming into moss. In the museum gift shop, I was given a sucker with a scorpion frozen in the middle. I let the sugar curve close to the edges of the scorpion’s body and that’s where I left it: a hair’s breath from my tongue. No exoskeleton careening through my intestines, all those miles of soft tissue and secretions in darkness. Scientific word for the phobia of the far-away sound of a heart beating. Once, I stayed up late to watch the grass grow around her shoes, and I didn’t tell God about it. List of moments edited out of evening prayer. My thoughts occupied by women who were either flesh or sculpture, and even with their own hands on their own stomach they still couldn't figure out which. How long should I want nothing? Until I dance in my hollow middle like it's a ballroom, its parties elaborate affairs I was once too young to witness. Ribcage straining to hold high ceilings. So tired now, I hear snow slide from the roof, a sound unlike a heartbeat, instead: like a body thrown down the stairs. Scientific word for the phobia of slowly growing snowdrifts. For the phobia of cold necks. For the phobia of resting my head against another’s chest, hearing through cotton and flesh the faraway sound of a heartbeat, buried and not mine.  Clara Trippe is a Midwest poet who has relocated to the East Coast to organize with feminist anti-war group CODEPINK. Her work has been featured in Grinnell Underground Magazine, Glass Poetry Press’ Poets Resist feature, and Paperbark Literary Magazine, and has had multiple chapbooks of poetry circulated on her alma mater’s campus. Clara is a lover of queer theory and freshwater. You can find her on Instagram @clarabelless and on Twitter at @mid_west_dad. |