Poem by Diana Keren Lee

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 HAPPINESS AND ABSURDITY 

    you invited me to your cabin
    and by the flames I said
    fixer upper I said protection

    when you said chronic pain
    my chair burned        in your story
    water offered at my forehead

    when you said failed poet
    I said what’s that     
    the back of my throat
    sore with whiskey

    when you said breakdown
    I said       I know

    my heart went down on itself
    and I leapt from my seat
    your hand on my back
    my back on your hand 

    my hand on your back
    your back on my hand 

    I lifted my dress to show you the scar
    but you were already inside me
    pushing the rock that had fallen
    back into place 

    when you held my hand
    it was like holding the hand of a child

    an old man         a little myth
    tending to my wound
    or was it someone else’s
    rock         a small fire 

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