Suss: another literary journal

I Give Away

by K.A. Keener

metaphor
the way they snap
as lid-tight as tup­per­ware
smoothed to a trusty seal
you can take it away
put it in your bag
you can trust it
jos­tle it, bump it
on the stairs, crowd it
on the train, it won’t
spill, it will hold
the last of the broth
of truth left on that train
truer than the newspaper’s
rustling, the wed­ding rings,
the adver­tise­ments, truer
still than the beats muf­fled
by car­ti­lage and webs of hair,
than the metronomes of shoes
and necks. It’s not ask­ing you
for any­thing, it’s not telling you
to spin gold for it or guess its name,
hell, you can for­get its name,
and it will still wait for you,
it will still dis­solve
on your tongue.

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