Margaret Saigh is a writer and dancer currently based in Pittsburgh. Her poems can be found in Dirt Child and Columbia Journal, among others. CROSSED IN THEE DARKER LIGHT OF TERROR is her first chapbook.
COMPARING MYSELF TO OTHER PEOPLE IS KILLING ME
My nose reflects in the glass
Black of my phone. I am
Hungry & tired & am willfully refusing
To let myself pee. I have lain across
My bed like a faint
Maiden for hours. Unlike her
I am not made of oil
And pigment. There is also my stupid flesh
The muscle, chipped
Teeth
Where the skin removes
Where I remove
Myself like a cold iron
Plate. A man’s hands
Latched around my windpipe.
I asked for them
[To be there]. I asked for them.
He came. I felt normal.