“The Deepest Wound”

by Susana H. Case

AJ Goldman | Rainstorm

 

The Deepest Wound

In Zimbabwe, I slipped off a ferry,

gouging my shin. For months,

my leg oozed

yellow, a gooey stigmata.

 

A sales clerk in a clothing store

approached me to ask

what had happened. I think he was

scared I had a disease,

would infect his store.

I will pray for you, he offered.

 

Someone already had: I could have

crushed my leg

between the boat and the dock,

been lost to crocodiles

in the Zambezi River.

 

Instead, I wear a scar

that looks like a man’s face.

I look at the man-face every day.

He’s fading.

He’s fading and I’m getting older.

Another year, and like

so many others,

this man, too, will be gone.

 

 

Susana H. Case’s newest book is 4 Rms w Vu (Mayapple Press, 2014). Author of four full-length poetry collections and four chapbooks, including The Scottish Café which was re-released in a Polish-English version, Kawiarnia Szkocka, by Opole University Press, she is a Professor at the New York Institute of Technology. http://iris.nyit.edu/~shcase/.