Taken out of context, I am almost a creature you could love.
I’ve been studying it and I’m surely very close, if you think about it
With some fine-tuning and a little adjustment, I could be really good,
or at least get most of the way there.
Taken out of context, you are almost a wound that could heal.
In the right lighting, with the right angles, you’re almost benign,
my darling tumor, my cancer and blight. If I just
thought about it the right way, I’m sure you could be
excised from my body and my flesh, carved out
like a bruise from a peach, scarified.
As it is, there’s not much either of us can do, except eat each other alive.
It’s the only way forward under the circumstances. I’ll savor it,
dear, being the blood staining your teeth, being the flesh under your nails.
Promise me you’ll take your time in unraveling me,
muscle from muscle, bone from bone, and I promise
not to take it for granted.
Amo O’Neil is a Chinese-American poet from the Bay Area with an interest in film. She’s an alum of Kenyon Young Writers and the Iowa Young Writers Workshop.