ASHLEE-ANN SNELLER
Laying Bait
We were seamless;
but I seemed less in comparison to you
like I’d been chewed through—
littering grains of rice to be followed Hansel and Gretel
I leak
even as your needle pierces you say to stitch me back up.
Rats nest in;
hay sacks, maize
even as a child I’d leave their burrowing
be
just being is hard when people see who you are
grain
by grain
by
and it’s pitiful cause I can’t even cook rice.
Nana tried to teach me how to sew
once; once upon a time…
I’m more like Sleeping Beauty than I care to admit
like I’d been chewed through—
still wondering why I feel your prick but not a proper stitch.
Snag
ging on everything fraying at the edges
that’s why it was so damn annoying to
carry the rats’ nest around,
are you supposed to twirl the cotton like this?
I just, chewed through everything.
The sack swirls behind almost tail-like.