La Prima Victoria

She expects nothing but to witness our lives

and find kindness and why shouldn’t she

but for the boiling water my partner spills

on my arm and the FUCK'S SAKE

that escapes my mouth now the snout

of the spitting mammal in me.

If there’s a craft to the failing of simple

expectations, I have mastered it

and majestically—but when there’s something

that must be said, it must be said,

Lispector says of a woman entering

an empty room and finding a version

of herself so dark it makes her pause

and really see it, how she’s no better

than the cockroach in her closet

and so she eats it.