--Tear it to shreds.
Yesterday I was cut neatly in half—
biology students could insert scalpels
and eyebrow tweezers and push
tiny flags into the fleshy parts
on either side of the divide.
Today I know that I am
half the view from my window
at 8:30 on a March morning,
half the trees blossoming
outside the Shady Grove Metro station,
half the rainbow of post-it notes
that wallpaper my desk,
half laying nude in the sun with a healing scar
where my umbilical cord once was.
I am a child given to excesses, and a woman,
indulgent and realistic. I am a
Caution, Winding Roads
sign and a cat asleep on a blue duvet.
Yesterday I was cut neatly in half, but the moon
was almost full, and the inevitable fulfilled its destiny.
What I learned today: I cannot give away my soul,
no matter how it is sliced.
