standing above the fault line

Jill Kitchen

what if you could stand one leg on either side of yourself and see the split
the before and after the open of your mind before it began to close

to scar to seam to stitch between to forget to keep some part of the stuffing in
some memory some knowing that leaked away that spilled out unseen

that wound marked by blood by the crack of tongue sliced by teeth
when the mind seizes sharp angles of canine clamp tight into tongue

don't wear your white coat the one the only time you had a white coat
the white puffy coat you wore while smartly all in black underneath

covered in the bloodspatter of your own crime your own body against itself
the paint splatter the breath spatter the way a brush would shatter color

across any canvas across your chest across where the paper crackle of hospital
gown would try to hold you unable to contain the cells the spill of you the open

too wide in the back over a see-through thong of you not knowing of course
you would end up in the ER having to slink in stilettos down the neverending

fluorescent runway to the bathroom your hand trying to grasp your gown closed
your tremble of limp trying not to fall not to fall again like now your body

will learn to fall will fall so often that even while standing straight you will
watch the world spin the pavement rise up to touch your face your bones

the cloudbreath of sunset your carpet the only place you can set your feet
and know for sure you will remain that you won't free-fall into earth core

into the fire-spin of sun

Jill Kitchen's work appears or is forthcoming in Ecotone, HAD, Parentheses Journal, The Penn Review, Pidgeonholes, Rust & Moth, SWWIM, Tahoma Literary Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Whale Road Review, and elsewhere. She has a B.A. in Romance languages from Colorado College and studied creative writing at UCLA, Columbia University, The Poetry Project in New York City, and with Hollowdeck Press. She lives in Boulder, Colorado where she can be found rollerskating on the creek path searching for great horned owls.