2012 ELIZABETH GRAEME
AWARD IN POETRY

Aimee Seu
Cheltenham High School

The Decision

Drawn and quartered. You divided
me. You were all four horses,
manes black as power
your foaming mouths and tense bodies were
beautiful to me
even then. (even now but
never mind)
You were all four hands on all four
whips. You were north
and east and west and
south as they dragged me away.
I had to decide where
to die. In what twitching muscle
unstitching wretchedly from the rest.
Which part of
myself should I be in? The shoulders
where I regret you, there I can still know
your cruelty. Right as rain. Sure as pain. Or my lower lip
that would bite itself off for ever
resting on you
(oh, but it had been so
tired.) My ribs and waist
have already forgotten you.
Do not ask the skin there your name. My ankles
claim they never cared at all. My arms and fingers
apologize for what they have
held.
But the soles
of my feet. I could not sway them
they would not obey my need
to lose you. My lungs
expelled you some time ago and my thighs
have eaten their own hearts.
The bottoms of my feet had lasted though,
keeping our secrets.
Quiet pink countries of arches and bones how
did you love our executioner?

And so after you dismembered me
I walked all the way home
barefoot
and bled you out.