How To Be Diaphanous

I knife through the world,

all prickles and efficiency,

cutting so deep, so quick,

that the blood waits politely to fall.

/

Triangle plates are my favorite;

you can slide them into the corner

of a crowded table (squeeze me in-

there isn’t room for me with circle plates).

/

I walked in frost and fragility once,

stepping so lightly as I danced that

my feet made no echoes. But verglas

became vampiric at another’s command.

/

I forged gossamer into a blade,

beat by the moon and tides,

imprisoned in silver, a delicate,

binding tomb in perpetuity.

/

How to be diaphanous-

how would I know? I am all edges,

knobby-kneed and gangly. Teach me,

wind, to be gentle. And to unlearn pain.

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