Apoptosis —Emma Lyree Zubrod
Because carpet softened the sounds of the guitar
Because his hair had yet to thin
Because love is a form of witchcraft
Because the magazines were left in the toy room
Because men are visual creatures
Because children are impressionable
Because crawdads don't hurt as bad as you'd think
Because children are sociopaths
Because you'll be a wild raccoon someday too
Because December is a cold emotion
Because there are so many last chances
Because misconceptions are hard to correct
Because love is a series of secretions
Because the carpet softened the fall
Because memory softened the guitar
Because the picture is unfocused
you have to step back to see it
Because it's not black it's midnight blue
Because birds fly with a shared mind
Because I said so
Because it won't come out of the carpet
Because I love terms of endearment and he
uses them sarcastically Because
linoleum is a cold emotion
Because he ate a junebug and forgot my name
Because I am George
Because synonymous are love and lust
Because he knew me
Because fireflies can't live without the dark
Because the initial rush always wears off
Because beauty and worth are synonymous
Because it's safer than being wrong
Because we're trying way too hard
Because he wanted more: a non-real number
Because the imaginary can be useful
Because I stubbed my toe on it
Because my hands are sticky
Because we've gotten used to the shadows
Because I am made of influences
the way deer shed their antlers
Because she's faking it
Because you're a she
and she hates to beg
Because the nail-box had rotted through
Because life is a series of organized reactions
she's easy on the eyes
Because I know right from wrong
Because life is precious
Because glitter reminds the primal mind of shimmering water
Because night lights are for babies
Because you asked so nicely I touched it
and spiders went everywhere
Because he crushed me into the concrete
Because there's a strange beauty to concrete
Because she who hates to beg begged
Because I am Miss Jones
Because I saw it on TV
Because love is its own biological reward
Because lack of oxygen makes her feel alive
Because I always tell the truth
and that game could go on forever
Because there's too much of me
Because she said the purpose of life is to break you
Because it's nice to think so
Because the male bedbug stabs the female in the abdomen
to impregnate her Because there's not enough of me
Because it has been seven years
Because you're turning into your father
Because female pleasure is an evolutionary afterthought
Because I'm oblivious to what he's obviously doing
Because I'm a she
Because plans fell [all the way] through
Because the magic is in the shortness of the moment
Because there was a short in the wiring
Because love is physical and there always is
a market for it Because salt
increases the boiling point
Because they could hear it from the landing
Because he kicked down the anthill
Because it's easier to kill [all spiders] than to learn
which one will hurt you
Because death is just a formality
Because I wasn't paying attention
Because love is art
with enough practice
Because veins in the eye block vision
Because good bows are made with horsehair
Because I'll screw up the recording
Because synonymous are price and worth
Because a body is not skin all the way through
Because it's impossible
Because frogs leave their eggs after they lay them
Because love and manipulation are ____________
Because we held [explicative] hands
Because the star has long since imploded
Because I can't spell “apoptosis”
Because the sole wears through
Because emotion is a series of secretions
Because hitting it usually fixes it
Because the well is deep
and the bullet still hot
Because she lives for her obituary
Because the notion threw me off
Because I threw it out of center
