Stichomancy

She opens a layer / between my skin / and the air

Poet Bardia Sinaee pictured in a suit and sunglasses

There is hair, yes
A fly on the sill

An itch
beneath the waxy scar

where they tapped
into a vein
above my heart

I say to the doctor
Those phlebotomists
are all pricks

My timing
is impeccable

She opens a layer
between my skin
and the air

where the spine
is ridged
like the edge of a coin

The pain, on a scale
from one to ten
is seven

and rising
A sharp noise
A bed of ants

Bardia Sinaee
Bardia Sinaee's first book of poetry is called Intruder. He lives in Toronto.

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