With a kind of treelike virtue
I sent my soldiers to your side
Pregnant once a year
For the sake of losing what’s mine
Posthole diggers dig post holes
Shimmering lights suggest the spiritual
Filmic befriending of violence
What occurs: cutaway freedom
Staged in the wolf den coup
My enemy wraps life in death cloth
I trundle behind making snips where I can
Admit it—the gore makes sense
Bleeders are the best friends
Break it like a hook
Like a waxwing in a dogwood
Sentimental and pink
Like the loss of body
Is the only real loss
Amie Zimmerman is from Portland, OR. Her work has been published, or is forthcoming, in Denver Quarterly, Prelude, Protean, Lana Turner, and mercury firs, among others. She is the author of four chapbooks, including Compliance (Essay Press) and, with artist Samantha Wall, the collaboration 31 Days/The Self (Ursus Americanus). Currently, Amie lives in upstate NY where she works as a hairstylist, labor organizer, and PhD student. Alongside Hajar Hussaini and Matthew Klane, she curates the poetry and performance series Salon Salvage. And forever, free Palestine.
