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Winter 2008
Dean Brink
Alan Catlin
Jim Doss
Darrell Epp
Taylor Graham
Ken Gurney
Michele Lerner
Michele Lesko
Lynn Lifshin
M
Corey Mesler
Mitchell Metz
Bryan Mitschell
Maurice Oliver
Patty Paine
Jayne Pupek
Nic Sebastian
Shawn Sorensen
Lynn Strongin
Christy Tomecek
David Jordan
Richard Rippon
Jack Swenson
Doug Ramspeck
David Jordan
Micki Myers
Teresa White
Jeff Calhoun
Patricia Gomes
Jennifer VanBuren
Jai Britton
Patrick Carrington
Alex Nodopaka
Order "Trim" Mannequin Envy's first print anthology
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Michelle Lerner
Winter 2008
Needles
You breathe open-mouthed
the way horses never do
standing head against the wall
of your shed, leaning into it
because your legs can not hold you.
I think what is this thing
I am able to do
with a syringe,
how to know the very moment
when the needle on the meter of agony
passes the mark.
I have not eaten or slept for days.
When you can move at all
you stumble in circles.
You will not lay down.
Something very old tells you
to stay upright,
not to offer your jugular
to the wolves.
And I can not tell
if I am the wolf
or your shepherd,
needle in hand,
plunging,
bringing the ground
to you
"I am a legal aid lawyer and an MFA student at The New School. My poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Lips, Sojourner, Harvard Women's Law Journal, Paterson Literary Review, Poesy, Up and Under, and other publications."
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