a sepsis

BY JASMINE HANLEY.

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here in melbourne wintery i have a tin roof for the rain yes i start typing with hands that
wanted to play the piano never learned to shuffle a deck of cards well i think i died on the
dance floor last may since nothing has been the same here my body slowed to allow
shivering shaking flew down a worming hole one man excavation of being a woman
found out i like loud visceral sounds my diaphragm is sensitive and inner standing easily
falls so bike down slopey side streets til the sun never rises up to full potential of the sky
and i plummet back bombed out bed like a quail served brittle on the table i don’t know if
essential oils are antiseptic but there is something cleaning my wounds like water
like water i have seen no water for the forest or the trees

here is something like tranquility or its antithesis i see shadows in the corners i see
dragons in every pixel a pretty picture my sinuses are crying here in the quiet like a
shiver weight of siren’s bones my mouth is burnt swollen you see there is only so much
warmth in this forty dollar bathrobe

oh the dreams are back ma explain the mosquito bites on the insides of my arms from the
fourth grade i am doing something i am doing work i am present when the earth falls
through darkness comes like salvation standing alone with the seed of my pain saying
look look what i did with my own bloody hands because there’s such a thing as sclerosis
of the soul and life is too easy when you have a center here in melbourne wintery yes

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Jasmine Hanley is a yoga teacher, moon lover, and creative writing student based in Melbourne. Her poetry tends towards the topics of mindfulness and healing, and has only recently begun appearing in print. You can keep up with her on her blog or on her Instagram @jasminehanley.