It’s not you that I want

Written By Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick

back or you or 

any other body 

I’ve pressed 

against me


a knife or

a caterpillar

depending on

how I look at it 


now—

depending on

how you held 

the knife my hand 


pressed my body or 

piece of glass 

I held against other 

bodies I’ve pressed 


against the knife again

against the caterpillar 

of my body I want you

back or you or

Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick

Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick's work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Missouri Review, Salamander, Poetry London, Salt Hill, Plume, The Texas Observer, Four Way Review, and Passages North, among others. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College's MFA program, Hardwick is Editor-in-Chief of The Boiler.

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