[By] Halves

What if one leg isn’t in love
with the other any more,
 
can’t recall who smudged
the wallpaper, a darkness
 
spreading like virus across
the droopy fleur de lis,
 
its weak explanation for
where stars go in daylight
 
to untwinkle whose fault,
who kicked, who stood
 
by expecting too much
claiming it was support?
 
 
What if one leg scissors
itself out of frame, if one
 
truth stretches out its
cramped calf only to hold
 
down what the other wants
to sweep under the carpet,
 
desire bottomed into sofa
cushions, into atrophy that
 
unbalances stride, neither
limb willing to take the step
 
forward, to make two halves
of a split view whole again?
Image: “Etching with Chine Colle III” by Michael Thompson. “[By Halves]” was written by Linda Vandlac Smith for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, January 2025, and selected as the Artist’s Choice.
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