DUPLEX IN THE KEY OF LIFE
after Jericho Brown/ with a line by Sara Borjas
Can’t distract a man from his instrument.
All I can hear are my own hard swallows.
All I can hear are my own hard swallows.
Can’t be a woman who swallows, with needs.
Can’t be a woman, or an instrument, who needs
space. Can’t be too distracting. Men, need
space. Can’t speak too loudly, be heard, take up space.
Men, like silence made by women who don’t distract
from their instrument. Men, make the opposite of silence,
call it—affection. How much space do instruments need
to swallow? In the stillness of swallowing, don’t distract me.
How much swallowing do I need to do
to get affection? For so long I’ve wanted
to be his instrument
Karla Lamb (she/her/ella) is a queer Chicana poet born in Mexico City, with work forthcoming or appearing in Hooligan Mag, Fruitslice, Tilted House, Cobra Milk, Rejected Lit, A Women’s Thing Magazine, YES Poetry, Coal Hill Review, Fine Print Press, Dream Boy Book Club, Word Riot, Pittsburgh Poetry Journal, & elsewhere. Her work has been twice nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology, & translated in Revista La Peste. Lamb hosts Verse4Verse, a monthly Queer-Expansive poetry open mic in East LA.