I get these headaches. I black out & then I’m in a classroom
with red doors. They’re all locked & Zach Morris is hiding
behind a skeleton. The bat in my hand is heavy. I slam it on
a desk & tell him I want him. I shove aside all the desks & back
him into a chalkboard. It’s only you I want. I’m doing this because
I love you. I slam the bat into the chalkboard. He screams & it fills me
like water pouring into a glass. SlamSlamSlamSlam. Please stop
loving me, he cries. This is what you wanted, isn’t it, when you
invited me over to study & turned the lights down so low I couldn’t
see words. You smothered me in your arms, saxophones playing so softly
I nuzzled into you but felt like a deer & couldn’t move. You want me to
ask you to the Sadie Hawkins dance, I’ll do you one better. This skeleton
dance with only a bat between your flighty, bird-like body & me:
bonecrack & splinter, fists raining.
Erin Case, Volley (collage)