They locked
wings
in the mass
of your body
alternately
fascinating
and revolting
a pretty
mouth
amid the
surgeon’s
mistake
thus
we
become an
artifact
impatient
the
plotting
between
flesh and
its plaster
cast
a modest
supplier
of exalt
the butterfly
it is
Brenda Serpick is the author of three chapbooks: the other conjunction in it (Furniture Press 2018), No Sequence But Luck (3 Sad Tigers Press) and The Female Skeleton Makes Her Debut (Hophophop Press). She was a participating poet for Tupelo Press’ 30/30 Project (July 2016), and her poems are forthcoming or have appeared in Tule Review, The Potomac, Free State Review, eccolinguistics, Printer’s Devil Review, Spiral Orb, LIT, Lungfull! Magazine, and Boog City – among other fine journals.
She currently teaches 12th grade English and creative writing for Baltimore City Public Schools. See some of her students’ work here.