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By Cia Mangat January 11, 2022

all of these things are true and not true

prayer warbles all day beneath our birdcage because

one of the budgies is always pretending to be a landline

 

the only palm reader i know has never taken her jewellery

off because the skin of her fingers folded the wedding ring in

 

i have nothing to say but it is to you that i want to say this nothing

i am overusing the word light        i am inventing dreams

 

to sound more interesting        i am folding into myself

like the night        i am turning and turning        like milk

 

unforgivably sour        once i sat down with a biro in each

of my back pockets         & had twin red and blue stains holding

 

my jeans to my hips on the way home        like palms smeared

with diagram blood in a biology textbook        last night i

 

dreamt we were in the mcdonald’s bathroom        you drank

light straight from the soap dispenser into your hands

 

i have nothing to say to you but         the only palm reader

i know told me to paint my nails more often       sometimes

 

she holds my face up to hers and swears she embroidered

every hair of my eyebrows in place         with a needle

 

last night i dreamt i answered the telephone with my eyes

closed and instead of your static hello? hello? i was being

 

led through plants and leaves        have i told you about

the morning i woke up with shards of biro plastic in my mouth

 

like glass        you told me you had nothing to say

the only palm reader i know once slapped me across the face ∎

 

Words by Cia Mangat. Artwork by Millie Dean-Lewis.

 

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