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dancing girl press, 2013
$7.00 |
Cati Porter is the author of Seven Floors Up (Mayapple Press), and the chapbooks small fruit songs (Pudding House), (al)most delicious (Dancing Girl Press), and what Desire makes of us, an e-chapbook with illustrations by Amy Payne (Ahadada Books). She is founder and editor of the online journals Poemeleon: A Journal of Poetry and Inlandia: A Literary Journey. She is the Publications & Programs Coordinator for the Inlandia Institute, a regionally-focused literary nonprofit based in Inland Southern California, where she lives with her husband and two young sons.
A Poem in Which I Lead Us Down a Strange Hallway
I have a twin and her name is Deanna, Dee for short.
I have met her only twice, once on each of my birthdays.
My first name is Celine, or Cee.
Our maiden name was Brassiere.
Our middle names are the same: Décolleté
She lives in a brownstone with many men who like to watch her eat.
I live in a hat and wear it when I must, but only when it rains.
When I am lonely I spell out the letters of her name in French.
I am always lonely. When I am
I talk myself down
the long hall
to the last room
on the left
where there is a chair
and a bustier
for asphyxiation.
She is an expatriate so there.
Though she is my twin we have nothing alike except for busts.
Hers is of Stalin. Mine is of her.