Opioid

When Narcan up the nose fails they drilled
a tiny hole in shinbone to juice the marrow
you took to the trail free radicals streaming
benzyl bisphenol dimethyl diethyl dibutyl what
softens without binding my binky my cup desk
sofa this vinyl floor I kneel upon off-gassing
our litter as suck-scape your pastel shit gleaned
& timestamped her skin was hectic yours blue
when the medics got there your skin was blue as
the tiny bag sitting in my palm how did it get
here who kicked it behind this thrift-shop
sofa she watched your skin pink up she tried
to count the little mice moving under it she
tried to count the little mice moving under

ξ

"Opioid" first appeared in Green Mountains Review.

Winner of the Iron Horse Literary Review NaPoMo 2021 prize, Cassandra Cleghorn published Four Weathercocks in 2016 with Marick Press. Her poems and reviews have appeared in many journals including Paris Review, Yale Review, OmniVerse, Poetry International, Boston Review, Colorado Review, and Field. She lives in Vermont, teaches at Williams College, regularly reviews poetry for Publishers Weekly, and serves as poetry editor of Tupelo Press. For more info, see www.cassandracleghorn.com.

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