KC Trommer
Apply pressure. A dogÕs bite. As in a puncture
strip, used to deflate tires.
Pin in a balloon. A pen, a nail, a splinter,
broken glass, almost any sharp
object will do. A puncture wound on either
side of the area just above
the knee where the dog grasped with its jaws.
Allow it to breathe
freely. There were puncture wounds on the
body, as from a knife, a scissor.
A small hole piercing the skin. Often, a pin.
A large abrasion to the right cheek.
Can you see fatty tissue? Muscle? Clean the
wound. Protect it.
Does the object remain in the wound? If the
object remains in the wound,
if the wound is in the head, chest, or
abdomen, unless it is small—
Injuries to the right hip and side and a
puncture wound in the center of the back.
The wound may not bleed excessively, may heal
quickly on its own.
You may need urgent care. Is there a loss of
feeling? Is there numbness?
The sucker mouths of the lampreys open
to show a circle of
vampire teeth. Their bodies wave out
behind them. They were
once eaten by kings—
one died of a surfeit
of lampreys.
When we swim, we swim with them.
You laugh at me and
jump in, arms then
shoulders then the
steaming mass of your head,
shed horseflies from
your skull.
Another circle within the first mouth circle:
vagina dentata.
Who can see them and
not think it?
Mouth circle with rows
of layered teeth where Virgil
walks,
Dante trailing him, into the mouth,
down the next flight of teeth, along the hasp
tongue
and into the
blood-filled belly of the lamprey.
Fixed to the side of a
bass, it will suck,
the mouth working
everything out.
Some hatch, toothless, in fresh water,
mature in the ocean,
come back to fresh water to feed.
I keep calling it
ocean, but there is no salt.
We see our toes as we
test Lake Superior.
Strange, nothing here. No seaweed bladders,
no gulls picking
through driftwood. You
swim to me and I see you
before you grab my
legs. We weave inside and out
of the Painted Rocks,
wave at the pontoon boats
before dipping our heads back underwater.
You keep your eyes
open as you swim.
The water makes us
loose confederates,