← v20n2, Fall 2021
Poetry · Volume 20, Number 2

Long Division

          one

   Between two

bedrooms nine

   people seven

too young to

   hold still Two

wanting everything

to hold still

          two

We were of eleven

   minds as if the two

who didn’t survive

   continued

to make their

feelings known

          three

We are viewed as both

   an argument against

and an argument for

          four

We were never one

          five

Can you say

which holds more hope?

The family ing or

the family ing?

          six

There is a photo of us

in which

         snow is falling

With it, the sky

          seven

We are only very rarely all

in the same room

          eight

If each finger touches

a different surface which

do you feel?

          nine

The thumb serves a function

distinct from the rest

          ten

He was always

leaving She left

   once

and never again

          eleven

The country

   divided the family divided I

divided