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self portrait as a lung

            the lightbox
illuminates my  
                                   bonekeys
risen me                                                     from the depths
of liquid space
                                                                      i strain
                                   abalone shells                     through ribcage

Outthere                  winged things                     use me              perch
                                                                                   drink                  what falls from me.
how i bulge             bloat       with breath
more than                                damp                     i am                   limp
what wafted                            through with me                           makes me whistle

i remember                             how he licked                                 me across the forehead
what was said                        how exotic                                        oh my god
so                                               exotic                                                 the exhalation

back to issue

Laurin DeChae is a MFA candidate for poetry at the University of New Orleans, where she acts as the associate editor for Bayou Magazine. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Harpur Palate, burntdistrict, Rust + Moth, Crack the Spine, and elsewhere.