Answer:

is not a lie it’s not

a lie i tell you it is not

it’s nothing short of truth

and nothing larger

my past lodges

in my marrow and if

i wanted a transplant

there’d be no match

others’ sorrows dwarf

my petty traumas still

these bones are mine

when they creak

when they moan

when they whine

there’s only one thing

i can claim these bones

are mine i tell you

they are mine and kind

to abandon no thing

that makes this pulse

no one but me

2. JANE HIRSHFIELD “MY LIFE WAS THE SIZE OF MY LIFE”

3. KAVEH AKBAR “AGAINST DYING”

4. CAMILLE T. DUNGY “DAISY CUTTER”

5. OCTAVIO PAZ “THE STREET”

It’s a long and silent street.

I walk in the dark and trip and fall

and get up and step blindly

on the mute stones and dry leaves

and someone behind me is also walking:

if I stop, he stops;

if I run, he runs. I turn around: no one.

Everything is black, there is no exit,

and I turn and turn corners

that always lead to the street

where no one waits for me, no one follows,

where I follow a man who trips

and gets up and says when he sees me: no one.