[ ] Approaches Me in a Coffee Shop Asking "why did you leave?"
by Marlin Figgins
I’m sickly & no one knows
I’m silent & this is expected
I’m expected & rooms drop to mute--
windows close at my passing & I’m standing
before you taking blame for what
you did to me for my silence & wind
dull enough to take a finger & we’re
in public now I cannot yell out without
causing a scene without my scream
leaving my body a whistle without my
body becoming convenience to yours again
what do you mean
no one knows why?
I’m silent the wind is dull yet I’m fingerless
before you
we’re in public & I’m still sickly having drawn
enough suspicion of the flu to warrant--
pity? what more?
prayer from strangers an offer of a live chicken
the means to kill myself to kill the chicken
silk handkerchiefs to wipe our blood
butane lighter knife & glove & mask & cough
how does this make you feel?
& so I take & take have killed slaughtered
& burned my hands clean & I’m too sick
to say it I’m in public
armed & drowned in the objects
the words needed to say
[stay silent as I & remember] to cough
& continue [you touched me once
in a night still
I was sent into motion & became windless
as the night itself]
I’m silent & this is expected
I’m expected & rooms drop to mute--
windows close at my passing & I’m standing
before you taking blame for what
you did to me for my silence & wind
dull enough to take a finger & we’re
in public now I cannot yell out without
causing a scene without my scream
leaving my body a whistle without my
body becoming convenience to yours again
what do you mean
no one knows why?
I’m silent the wind is dull yet I’m fingerless
before you
we’re in public & I’m still sickly having drawn
enough suspicion of the flu to warrant--
pity? what more?
prayer from strangers an offer of a live chicken
the means to kill myself to kill the chicken
silk handkerchiefs to wipe our blood
butane lighter knife & glove & mask & cough
how does this make you feel?
& so I take & take have killed slaughtered
& burned my hands clean & I’m too sick
to say it I’m in public
armed & drowned in the objects
the words needed to say
[stay silent as I & remember] to cough
& continue [you touched me once
in a night still
I was sent into motion & became windless
as the night itself]
Biography
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Marlin Figgins (he/him/his) is a Midwesterner, writer, math nerd, cat lover and college student. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming in The Shallow Ends, Cotton Xenomorph, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, and Frontier Poetry!
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