When You Don’t See Me

BY SAMANTHA GARNER

In the light that doesn’t reach us, who do we become?

Our skins flaring in the dark,
we circle each other like a new kind of animal,
dust in our fur, in our eyes.

We draw away into ourselves,
sure and clean in our wildness
A specific hunger, an unfindable want.

Too late, I want to ask everything
I want to ask too much. I want to crack you open
so I can be recalled.

We unmake our topography, our lines exposed
I am bare bones, teeth, wide open spaces for your life
Will you know me again, blinking in the sun?

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SAMANTHA GARNER is a Toronto-based writer. Her work has appeared in Broken Pencil, Sundog Lit, Kiss Machine, The Fiddlehead, Storychord, and WhiskeyPaper. Her debut novel The Quiet is Loud is forthcoming in 2021 by Invisible Publishing. She can be found online at www.samanthagarner.ca.