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Psychotic break
​by Sarah Neal McCurry

When you're a woman and you're off
your rocker like a turtle who lost

the shell it never knew existed until
it was gone and bald like a woman

shaves her head in February
which is a hard word to say

like a Germanic sound comes
from the back of the throat where you

feel sound itching its way out
of the mouth which created it like the angels

your brain created convinced
you your soon-to-be-wife was

sex-trading children and keeping them
in the secret basement you could never

find like a sense of peace like the shelter
dogs who never know love and safety

like a woman who is afraid of being touched
wants to wear a bag on her head like children

at Halloween are ghosts like the ancestors
are now begging to be remembered

like the last elephant on the planet
without a mate like the woman used to be

those snowed-in years trapped talking
to an empty kitchen where she could feel

angels hover to hear every word
like winged shadows she could never get rid of

like a turtle who can never get
rid of its shell tries to anyway      tries to run

away from itself so it can finally be alone


Sarah Neal McCurry received her MFA in Poetry Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in: North American Review, Stone Highway Review, The Ilanot Review, Anthem Journal, Almost Five Quarterly, Wilde, Sinister Wisdom, Wicked Alice, ROAR, and elsewhere. Her chapbook, Speak So It Anchors You, was just published by Kattywampus Press. She resides outside Nashville, TN with her wife, four dogs and two cats. 
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I ask google what does pussy smell like
Issue 18: Summer 2016
​
ISSN 2157-8079
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