Like how to make a show of tending to myself
How to perch in hard-to-reach places
How to curl into a self-contained shape
How to feign disinterest
How to refuse to be picked up
How to refuse to be carried
How to refuse
How to knock all the photos off the mantle
How to mark my borders with things I’ve destroyed
How to murder something and call it a gift
How to rub against a stranger’s leg
while staying out of arm’s reach
How to rake my claws down the back of the couch
or any other soft thing that might hold me
How to climb too high
How to cling until I can’t
How to fall and land on my feet
How to slip away quietly
How to be a stray
How to need and need and need and need
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POETRY: Issue 35