Autobiography 2020

    

after Madeline Gins

my name, 

Penelope,

belongs to my body

I am 45 years old and have 

so many years to live

another name for me might be doctor

I move according to 

the gravity of the situation

I am composed of contact points

another name for me might be mother

I try to stay in the moment

I think about that all the time

I breathe with conscious force

I wake up with pain 

or lie down with it

wrapping it around me

I married that pain and only death

will part us

let me tell you about 

the world we live in now 

or the world as it was

poetry has always been necessary 

the throat of life

birdlike

stones communicating with stones

but where I am now 

is the end of poetry

birds

are the new poetry