Kristin Chang
Passive verb, active verb
We have found the body
lying
in a bed turned bone.
We have evidenced
the crime & found no one’s hands
around your neck
but yours, not yours, no, never
named. We have found
a better name for the body: broken
into. We believe in making the body
hole. We believe in men & are you not
meat. We have searched stomachs
& found swallowed fists. We have recorded
screams & renamed them songs. We believe
all violence is merely interpretation.
For example, does a wound not free
the blood? Does whiteness not man
the darkness, cancel you clean?
in a bed turned bone.
We have evidenced
the crime & found no one’s hands
around your neck
but yours, not yours, no, never
named. We have found
a better name for the body: broken
into. We believe in making the body
hole. We believe in men & are you not
meat. We have searched stomachs
& found swallowed fists. We have recorded
screams & renamed them songs. We believe
all violence is merely interpretation.
For example, does a wound not free
the blood? Does whiteness not man
the darkness, cancel you clean?
Where words unwrite the page’s
whiteness, I bleed into it
my many names. I gather girls
in my fist, throw us
like confetti. I paper the streets
with my face, declare myself
unmissed. Look, miss. Another man
wears his mouth like it matters. I knife his face
from mine. I birth myself & butter
bread with my blood. Feast of me
to break teeth. No god
you’ll believe more than me.