What I’ve Tried to Ignore by Jamie L. Smith

What I’ve Tried to Ignore | Jamie L. Smith

That our bodies are cities on the verge
of riot, that the blackout eclipsing

our overburdened power grid
approaches with each hum and click

we utter. Under the ash gray and black
lily tattoo, a constellation of red

beauty marks like taillights punctuates
my left side. I’ve tried to forget

that coffee grounds are placed
on hospital radiators

to mask the scent of bowl movement.
To forget that it doesn’t always

work. That I hid in the bathroom
until the nurses had changed

my father. As a child in Miami,
he was taught to hide

beneath his desk with a textbook
covering his head. His mother

fled Europe as the reich advanced.
Towards the end

my father’s tongue remembered
its German. Unsere Körper

revoltieren. Where is there to hide
when we can’t escape?

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