Giantess (2024)

Harrowing as the day I was born

—I think—

you lamented about

how you briefly forgot the love

of your life--like driving a small

pin into a toe pad inebriated

with bathwater, you related the

story to me--and the backs

of my eyelids remembered

that ear-worm Pathetique

from the opera about the giantess who

fell into unrequited love with an ogre.

We watched it develop at the Civic,

up in the nosebleeds

and you placed your hand on

the back of my head to

lure me in, a riptide,

and I drowned.

The opera was tragic, on par

with Massenet’s Thaïs,

but that analogy was inappro-

priate to bring up in the moment

as you wailed into the caverns of

my breast, the echoes of stalactite

water dripping causing you to

leap from your skin, in this vast

expanse you had excavated

yourself.

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