CATHERINE RAGSDALE


                                     



TRIANGLE OF REFERENCE




Is it better to swerve around
                                             roadkill or to run
over it?
           If I asked you, you would
know. You would draw                      a triangle
between my legs.          Sometimes I gag
on my own breath.                            Sweetheart,

do we see the same color red?

I had a new lover once. The first time
I called him honey, it felt like

killing you.         The new lover told me a story,         once

he was a little boy and found
with his brothers a cat with broken back legs
in a bed of dirt. They took a hunting bow
and tried to shoot it in the head but it kept living.

It was nice to learn you still don't believe
in God.

Do you think that cat was       God or me? I see it there,
as they hit it over and over with a stick, bleeding
honey. The kind that is tinted with the flavor
raspberry or apple, some copper color                     seeping
Does blood ever go       back in a wound?

Do you think about that triangle?

You said we see everything different
but what about our mouths?
The blood       lining my leg
I thought you had seen.       Do you see me

held against a bed? Or there in the room              after?
The last time we didn't use a bed, but I think you would

remember the blood. The last time I called you              honey
was it sweet or did it taste like a penny?







TYPO 31