What the self forms around
cannot be undone – Gabrielle Bates

I was birthed
      sleek, a drop
of magnetite
      cracked egg-like upon
the world

      she might say
I arrived
      a gnarled stump
and it’s time
      chiselling me smooth

all this fearfulness
      of edges
when it’s how you hold me
      that makes me tool
or weapon

she spirals skin
      from an apple
with the blade
          leveled
      advancing
on her wrist

which way am I
          pointed, mother
      are you afraid
of my edges
          or your own grip

when a knife
      falls from the counter
I learned to fight
          the urge
      to catch it

 

Chiara Di Lello is a writer and educator. She delights in public art, public libraries, and getting improbable places by bicycle. For a city kid, she has a surprisingly strong interest in beekeeping. Find her poems in Rust + Moth, Whale Road Review, Kissing Dynamite, and Best New Poets.