Karen Poppy

Valuation

I call you multiplication.

Many slaps.

Blood on a little girl's face.

I call you multiplication

Of rage, popping veins, popping 

Spittle, popping bullet words, 

Popping baseball bat, popping.

I call you division.

Torn skin on a little girl's back. 

Fracture of ribs beneath skin, 

Bruises inking each between 

Space on flesh.

I call you division

Of self, rupturing every 

Tender, vulnerable place.

I refuse to cry, add to your 

Sadistic joy. I refuse to speak, 

Subtract from any silence.

My mother never stops you.

I count every time she stood there,

Like now, and watched.

At night,

I wrap my body 

In a sheet.

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Karen Poppy has work published in numerous literary journals, magazines, and anthologies. Her chapbooks Crack Open/Emergency (2020), and Our Own Beautiful Brutality (2021) are both published by Finishing Line Press. Her chapbook, Every Possible Thing, is published by Homestead Lighthouse Press (2020). An attorney licensed in California and Texas, Karen Poppy lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.