Verboten

but you reached,
pulled a sapling
out your shoe
replaced coldness with
manic light-
amnesty–
this, we share.
we chose
verboten, notions
replacing
constrictedness.
metallurgic
trenchant
colluding. be
finally different
from your ancestors,
pretend I am the
middle stomach
waiting for you.

—

Dina Paulson is a poetry, flash fiction, and nonfiction writer based in Detroit, Michigan. Her poems, stories, and essays appear or are forthcoming in Flash Fiction Magazine, FlashFlood, and CinemaNerdz and have been exhibited at Hudson Guild Gallery in New York City. She is assistant managing editor of Compose | A Journal of Simply Good Writing and blogs at kitchenandlegs.com.