Jennifer Tatum's work has appeared in 1913: A Journal of Forms, Another Chicago Magazine, Columbia Poetry Review, South Loop Review, and other journals. She received an MFA in Nonfiction from Columbia College Chicago where she was the recipient of a Follett Fellowship. She is the Managing Editor of Hotel Amerika and lives and works in Chicago.
from A THEORY OF BRICKS
Lay me across the floor, like pin art—a thousand metal impressions. Undo and consume my stitches. Peel back my skin and etch yourself onto myself. This doesn’t mean we are fixed, doesn’t mean anything about intention. The roots of my hair are wreckage and reconstruction. Substances can be tested years after, traced at the root. Blondish hair bent and dangling and at one point—there are many points—jagged, connecting limbs that sting. Press against my bricks, sharp sting and drill your hands against my lips. Violent hair in my mouth and, in the morning, we pluck single strands from in between the tile.