Seal Baby

You slid from my body
like a selkie sheds her skin
Your body white as wax
lay between my legs
the midwife snatched you up
the smell of her panic
as pervasive as garlic
muffled by exhaustion
I merely gazed at her
knowing I had already lost you
and so you couldn't die

Dumpling

A delight
a soft round ball of deliciousness
You smile so big
your eyes disappear
you clasp your hands to your heart
like a little old lady girl
and grin as you burrow into my shoulder
the public adores you
you smile at everyone with equal joy
"I could eat you up!"

Thinner

I am thinner
I am less
I have found again the corners of my skeleton
My bones feel girlishly fragile
My wings are too small and blunt to lift
I look at my hands and see the ropes of my veins
I wonder if that is all that is holding me together
In the heat
my flesh feels heavy on my bones
spongy and dense
I am eating it slowly
I am scraping it away from the inside
If I take enough off, maybe my heart will float instead
of rasping down the grater of my ribs
I have swallowed my tongue
and found that my appetite for argument has disappeared