Annalisa Hansford
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portrait of my ex-girlfriend's mouth

              after Donika Kelly

in the beginning, there was your mouth:
              ripping into fruit like flesh. teeth stained

with the juice of your hurt. i dreamed of this 
              before, your tongue the knife lulling me

to silence. pressing your lips to my neck,
              i caved. you gashed wounds into my skin

the shape of your ghosts. the memory
              of you forever sewn into my body. it started

to rain and all i could hear was the lullaby
              your mother never sang to you. now you

are gone, and i am left with the myth of your
              breath. in the beginning, there was your mouth:

full of light, swallowing moths so your throat
              wouldn't cleave into loneliness.

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Annalisa Hansford's poetry appears in Emerge Literary Journal, The Hearth Magazine, Eunoia Review, The Aurora Journal, and elsewhere.