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Light-eater

photo of grey fox on a wooded trail at dawn

"We eat light, drink it in through our skins." — James Turrell, artist & MacArthur Fellow, known for his use of light & space

If on phone, turning it sideways (landscape) best displays poetic line breaks.

Even now, when my ankles wear
a map of red roads, the bones shine
under skin. Before dawn,
the day still comes for me. Standing
in the last bit of night, see how the stars
break open like eggs, their yolky light
oozing into me, as if I were
a hungry fox, mouth wide open,
about to starve. In this story,
I am a light-eater, no hero for the plot,
only how time leaves its tattoos,
only how a woman turns feral
before she disappears completely.

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