Proof
I am solving this like you are crafting this:
trembling black coffee in hand, red atoms
robed in rectangle, “The Kiss”—a signature
gift from The Louvre?
+
I am the maid by the window watching you
speak it out, tongue to tongue, black water
wetting the carpet, the cells, the Klimt, me
before ô
*
How my scars—diamonds—will scare you.
Linette Marie Allen is earning an MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts at the University of Baltimore. Recipient of a 2018 Betty Tarpley Turner Research and Travel Award, she recently launched a poetry project in Accra, Ghana. A tireless globe trekker, she enjoys translating her work into diverse languages, typically over shrimp-seared Pad Ka Praw and an ice-cold cider. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Pleiades, Notre Dame Review, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. To date, her work has been published in India, Israel, England, and New Zealand. Find her on Twitter @thepagereader.