By KC TROMMER
Louise Bourgeois, MASS MoCA
Inside the bounded mercury,
we keep going. All circuits that close
make serpents of us, constrict
and envelop every tender corner until
only a small portion
is distinct, our feet dangling like the end of a
sentence. We suspend ourselves
in a room full of light but take none in.
Though we might call it love,
it’s not. It’s only the old narratives
winding through us, moving their casings
over us until we are a closed circuit of knowing.
What I want more than company
is air. Well, perhaps to be held lightly,
the faint feeling of you at my waist
as I turn open. But first, the task is to
command the molecules to take in more,
to occupy the sealed
space. There is no straight line to this
evolution, no greater alchemy
than adding oxygen, no end
KC Trommer is the author of the debut poetry collection We Call Them Beautiful and the chapbook The Hasp Tongue. She is the founder of the collaborative audio project QUEENSBOUND and assistant director of communications at NYU Gallatin. She lives in Jackson Heights, Queens, with her son.
