The Girl Of Paper
The wind blows through her, through
her thin white surface.
It rattles coldly in her vacant stomach.
It lifts and hurls her
hard against the walls.
On rainy days, she’s sodden,
pieces peeling
from her perimeters, leaving her frayed.
The sun curls up her edges,
turns her yellow.
It penetrates her lungs,
her cold white heart,
makes her feel cindery and light
as ash.
When she wants,
she can curl small,
fold up, fold up,
and slip between the pages of a book,
into a purse,
under a tongue, a foot,
slide silently away under a door.
Kitty Coles is one of the two winners of the Indigo Dreams Pamphlet Prize 2016 and her debut pamphlet, Seal Wife, will be published in August 2017. www.kittyrcoles.com
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