inside

by Allyn Bernkoph

the emergency room

i was an inkblot

a nurse with a sharp

nose and fingers opened

a kit finished dumped me

into another room

my tears papered

a polygraphed detective

started asking

i said stop

he couldn’t so i lunged

for a metal waste bin

i was a fresh river

of booze i was

rain i was

window i was

---

Allyn Bernkopf is a Ph.D. Candidate in Poetics, American Poetry, and American Literature at Oklahoma State University, where she is also an associate editor for the Cimarron Review. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Blue Earth Review, Foothill Poetry Journal, The Bayou Magazine, and others. She holds an MA in English, Poetry, from Weber State University and is from the alluring Mountain West valley of Ogden, Utah.

Photo by Leiada Krözjhen on Unsplash