Interview Before Taking His Name
Jill Crammond
Please state your name for the record.
Bone-wife.
Heart thumping under the floorboards.
Doe with dried teats.
How would you greet a wolf at the door?
I imagine I would take him by both paws,
draw him in so close I can taste his sour-meat breath
and kiss him warmly.
Why do you insist on lying?
I am part girl
part rage
part dull knife.
Do you know how much I love you?
When I was a girl, I choked on a fishbone.
I had no idea it was dangerous to swallow.
If you take me fishing, I will leave each silver prize dangling on the hook.
I drown like a seagull raging against waves.
Where have you loved before?
Cemetery, sink hole, dead-end, poker table. Did you say who?
What will you risk to regain your virginity?
You pulled me into a closet,
you whispered here, right here.
I have been your red thread ever since.
Will you give up your name?
I’m finally ready to answer your questions.
For the record, call me the wire cage
holding (your cock) the cork in our wedding champagne.
If you take my name from me, I will explode.
Jill Crammond’s poems have appeared in Tinderbox Poetry, Pidgeonholes, Unbroken Journal, Mother Mary Come to Me Anthology, Fiolet & Wing: An Anthology of Domestic Fabulist Poetry, and others. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her chapbook, Handbook for Unwell Mothers, was a finalist for the 2021 Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize, judged by Victoria Chang. She lives and teaches art and preschool in upstate NY.