I Eat the Distance - Kamal Seven-Amir

I am a hungry thing.

Eating at the fractures between

broken ceramics,

both foreign and familiar.

I: abnormal creature

here coiled––unstable

flicker within scrutiny.

hunt the grey

gaps holding this

and that together.

Chew tendon that tastes

unfettered by that

bloody fruit of the

Tree of life.

I, with teeth and claw stalk

the blur at

the periphery–feel

its formless tangles:

stimuli beneath me.

My prey tramples

over my fresh footprints.

The sweat. The tears. The salt stain

my breath and air and skin until

I stand:

heels nipped and bleeding––

a beast marked by victory, quivering

in my jaws.

Only now can I hear

the wails from far

away. From

yesterday, and February, and

tomorrow.

But this language is no longer

my own.

And so

I cut the cord.

And so

I eat the distance.

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Kamal Seven-Amir is a Harlem-based writer studying English at the University at Albany.