Two Years, Still Undiagnosed

molly-belle-a-xEUwYSPLw-unsplash.jpg

By. Lori Noto

Who am I to you?

Today,

I am 2:33 PM on the second

Tuesday of July, shuffled out

office doors by 2:49.

Soon, my name will be smoke

vanishing over dinner with your family.

How I wish I could still eat

like I did when I thought

my life meant something.

My flesh has become paper thin, folded

into books on your shelf

until the spines split.

Do you know this body like I know

when my burning throat

screams for honey

like I know I ache from serpents

squeezing my bones

like I know there is an animal,

caged and bleating,

within me?

Hear it.

Hear it.

Heat it. God,

why aren’t you listening?

Lori Noto is a Midwestern poet and proponent of education. A disillusioned business major, she began studying English Education at a small, but adorable, Wisconsin college in 2016. She has not looked back since. Her work is also published in The Sheepshead Review, Cathexis Northwest, High Shelf Press, Coffin Bell, other issues of For Women Who Roar, and Burnt Pine.