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Hymn to the Neck
by Amy Gerstler
Tamed by starched collars or looped by the noose,
all hail the stem that holds up the frail cranial buttercup.
The neck throbs with dread of the guillotine’s kiss, while
the silly, bracelet-craving wrists chafe in their handcuffs.
Your one and only neck, home to glottis, tonsils,
and many other highly specialized pieces of meat,
is covered with stubble. Three mornings ago, undeserving
sinner though she is, yours truly got watch you shave
in the bath. Soap matted your chest hair. A clouded
hand mirror reflected a piece of your cheek. Vapor
rose all around like spirit-infested mist in some fabled
rainforest. The throat is a road. Speech is its pilgrim.
Something pulses visibly in your neck as the words