Open Throat

by Henry Hoke

I want to do the opposite I want to go to a place where I won’t be hated where there are therapists running around everywhere like deer and I can just find one and catch it and pin it down store it somewhere safe and visit it once a week

she makes a circle of sparkling stones around my sofa and kneels and feeds me from her outstretched palm and calls me her goddess if you feel alone in the world find someone to worship you

I watch his neck that familiar neck but I also watch his hands they move up and down as he eats and I think of how easily those hands can make fire and how easily that fire can destroy tents and a town and burn a forest every person sitting and walking has hands too and I see all their hands and I know what their hands can do and what their hands would do and the violence waiting behind every motion I learn something new I learn I can open a car door