by Meghan Kemp-Gee
With wet-lipped, dry-
mouthed last breath before
the left-behind
bicycle, the last
lost slipped-out-of-
pocket breath, a voice
curbing like cold
water in a still
black bowl, a marble
at the bottom
rolls to a stop and
says, Say what you
make of me, make the
sound, wet-mouth out
letters, spit out
difficulty, crisp-
tongue the k’s, make
fricative and glass-
eyed, empty-eared
self-portraits, make your-
self say what you
will have from me, make
me curl the sound
out of you, make me
teach myself, dry-
lipped, wet-mouthed, how to
teach you to have
more of what you want.
Meghan Kemp-Gee is the author of THE ANIMAL IN THE ROOM (2023) and WHAT I MEANT TO ASK: A CHAPBOOK (2022). She also co-created CONTESTED STRIP, the world’s best comic about ultimate frisbee (and soon to be a graphic novel, ONE MORE YEAR).
Emerge Literary Journal 