Tossing Out the Elixir of Life (A.K.A. Smashing the Vile on Accident) by Sophia Warren

Top Honorable Mention for the Gavilan College Annual Poetry Contest

I wear my breath and read the guidelines looking for a perfect circle.

Dotted line, six feet apart. Lines in my forehead lines in my art down my palms around my toes spider wrinkles in rows.

Cartography in ink Lines in stretch marks Determining destinies, widening, apart.

Lines between you and me and yours and mine. Lines in sheets bits of paper lines denoting rhyme.

I wear my breath and read the guidelines looking for a perfect circle.

Did we come or become Cro-magnon, geometry, biology, and allegory?

National lines and city limits, strong thighs break the ribbon at the finish.

Graphs and gauges and shapes and minutes.

Margins for error boxes of terror queues for a movie I haven't yet been.

Drawing lines in the sand, in the dirt, in the stars.

I watch the old women wearing A-line skirts write and memorize lines, monologues for a play.

I wear my breath and read the guidelines looking for a perfect circle.