Katie Degentesh

from The Anger Scale

There Seems to Be a Lump in My Throat

Much of the Time
About a month ago,
Uncle gave me a lump of gallium to play with

the doctors told me it was nothing to worry about
then the whispering began

one neighbor remembers seeing a woman with an olive
dipping a slice of potato in salt water
to save someone from war

On darts nights thick bread was cut into quarters
and the camera was given hypnotherapy
to remember the old times of the Indian wars

there was a whole lot going on, and a lot of dancing
more rhetoric than committed action

The guard was friendly and soon produced ice
He was just a lump of meat, and he said,
"better than being struck by lightning
but I just had a baby"

Kick that hat-box under the seat
There seems to be no historical explanation for its presence
except as a perverse celebration of selfishness

a question about planting nuts from seed
beginning with a lump of clay
a tendency for the small penis to grow
more in erection than in the self-exam

because it remembers that
the yelp can help it gain ground

no amount of perfume or frilly lace is going to make
a 'what's your holy grail' thread
out of tortoise excrement skimming a grave

I'm not a lump of horrified jelly,
but parts of me are scared:

the anvil in my heart
my animal crackers, and another veggie burger
How can I reduce the appearance of them?

Suppose someone on a sailboat photographs a whale
climbing out of the Mediterranean
just as seven-year-old Randy saw his uncle
impale Theresa on the statue.

There seems to be so little one can do about it
over the next few minutes