Words Per Mile

By Callie Ann Marsalisi

“There’s something large

I can feel it in my bones

The same way I can feel

The man with the black book

Watching me as I

Don’t look back

Or the way I can feel the rain

On my back a knife

In my hand or a

Pulse under my fingertips

And I wonder about stories

And the merit of meritocracy

And why I insist on playing cards

Aces low

When everyone else

Refuses to take them at face value

I want to change the world

Using nothing more than the

Space between two

Quotation marks

But I don’t know how to fill the hollow places

The gaps between

People

That, inside-out,

Are mountains

And on my hilltop

I kern, discern

The shape and space between two letters

And the distance our ribs keep

Between my heart and yours

And you’ll never understand

Why I play cards

Aces low

But you’ll humor me

From time to time and”

Love me all the same.