“Lost Poem 4: RX”
A Poem by Camonghne Felix

From Build Yourself a Boat

September 29, 2019  By Camonghne Felix
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The psych on duty in triage
Asks me if I want to die, and I say

Not at the moment, no, but stay Tuned.
I can charm my way out

Of anything—including his seven-day
Suggested stay, those ugly

Gray mornings buzzing in infrasound
I can save my own life just as easily

As I can corrupt compounds of
Ripe silence with just a mouth—

Drown it out of its own sound. This
is what makes me dangerously

Compatible with death
Me and my ability to finesse

Choice out of desire, the talented Tenth
of disassociation, the power

Of being just a body within a body
Of jewels.

____________________________

Build Yourself a Boat

“Lost Poem 4: RX” appears in Build Yourself a Boat, which has been longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for poetry and is available from Haymarket Books.



Camonghne Felix
Camonghne Felix
Camonghne Felix, poet and essayist, is the author of Build Yourself a Boat, which was longlisted for the National Book Award in Poetry, shortlisted for the PEN/Open Book Award, and shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Awards. Her poetry has appeared in or is forthcoming from Academy of American Poets, Freeman’s, Harvard Review, Lit Hub, The New Yorker, PEN America, Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. Her essays have been featured in Vanity Fair, New York, Teen Vogue, and other places. She is a contributing writer at The Cut.






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