L a u r e n G o r d o n
When your poem was eight
someone forced her
to do the splits in a gymnasium;
adult hands splayed
across her thighs, depressing
her to the floor
until flush
and this is why your poem has a broken bone in her back,
why your poem will always be bent.
copyright 2014 by Lauren Gordon
guest editor: Sara Biggs Chaney
Afterword