By Kim Addonizio

Bone-stick
partially stripped

I hang you upside down
with your sisters
above my mirror—

all drooping heads all trophies of desire

O rose thou art past-tense

Even your brother the worm
has shriveled and gone

Your silks are best
like this unkiss-

able
and therefore bearable

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Kim Addonizio is the author of seven poetry collections, two novels, two story collections, two books on writing poetry, and a memoir. Her latest book of poems, Now We’re Getting Somewhere, was published by W.W. Norton in 2021.