Mr. Africa Poetry Lounge!

I am Trying to Break Your Heart


I am hoping
to hang your head


on my wall
in shame-


the slightest taxidermy
thrills me. Fish


forever leaping
on the living-room wall-


paperweights made
from skulls


of small animals.
I want to wear


your smile on my sleeve
& break


your heart like a horse
or its leg. Weeks of being


bucked off, then
all at once, you're mine-


Put me down.


I want to call you thine


to tattoo mercy
along my knuckles. I assassin
down the avenue
I hope


to have you forgotten
by noon. To know you


by your knees
palsied by prayer.


Loneliness is a science-


consider the taxidermist's
tender hands


trying to keep from losing
skin, the bobcat grin


of the living.

Written by Kevin Young

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