Boxed, but Not Labeled

It's #tbt! In honor of our 10th anniversary, we are celebrating our staff members by re-running their work from SWWIM Every Day's archives!

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inside every head, a sculpture: stranger
than art, the mind is not contained: bony boxes
offer protection, but magic is in
the eye: as sparks fly, synapse to synapse, bone becomes
transparent: our movies play, image after
image: our circuitry is not
a closed system: we watch our minds
change: we watch thought—

don’t stop thinking—
don’t let smoke fill the box: don’t
stop—

magic is boxed: from Pandora’s
myth, to Schrodinger’s paradox, magic depends
upon a hasp without a padlock—

don’t break the spell—

eyes tight shut, we see in our mind’s eye—cat’s coat
staring: cat’s ears curved, like small sails
in a stiff wind: cat’s paws
already stiffening—

inside my head, a cat’s cradle: can you see
me, among my tangled wires?
am I
an installation?

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Jude Marr (he, him) is a Pushcart-nominated trans poet, and an editor with Animal Heart Press. His poetry has appeared in many journals and anthologies and his next book, Silence Will Not Save Us, should see daylight in 2027. He now lives in Coimbra, Portugal.