The Outline

I.  The strike
      a.   the swell
          i.   purpling, then
          ii.   greening
II.   and eventual recession to a mark
      with indistinguishable origins, but
      a.   it is there
          i.   angry
          ii.   I am angry
          iii.   you did an angry thing to my body
            green and swelling before you
            I was open     yet refer back to
I.   The strike
      a.   it seems necessary to strike
        something soft to see
          i.   if it will give
     b.   I gave for what
        else is there to do when a map
        blueprints skin
      c.   that is a rhetorical question—
II.   You are struck and learn
      a.   what it is
        to be marked
        angry
      b.   the swelling is not
        giving, it’s a bloody
        yawp against the othermost edge
        of my body     this is the hard
        cusp of my blood
      c.   this is hard
      d.   I am on edge     if only
          i.   a bridge to walk
            but I hear
III.   the architects’ strike
IV.   an invisible net
    for me to strike before
V.   I am stricken
    on a rocky outpost
VI.   the golden hammer
      a.   on the edge
      b.   the striking sea

 
 
 

Katie Longofono received her MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, where she directed the 2014 SLC Poetry Festival. She is the co-curator of Dead Rabbits Reading Series, a monthly reading in upper Manhattan. Her first chapbook, The Angel of Sex, was published by Dancing Girl Press in 2013. She also has a collaborative chapbook with Mary Stone Dockery, titled Honey and Bandages, out from Folded Word Press (2015). She may or may not be on Twitter. She lives in Harlem.