I want to be touched
but will settle

for a memento
of our time together

parking stub receipt
hair band ghost

money spent stain
and residue I rely

on the dark to hide
awkward moments

fist flex fumble
lintel of fabric warm

seam pressed against
the core some call me

unnecessary
a disturbance

in the straight line
they don’t know

how I carry the weight
you place

in the soft shadow
of my mouth

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Jane Medved is the author of Deep Calls To Deep (New Rivers Press) and the chapbook Olam, Shana, Nefesh (Finishing Line Press). Recent essays and poems have appeared in SWWIM , Ruminate, The North American Review, and The Normal School. Her translations of Hebrew poetry can be seen in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Cajibi and Copper Nickel. She is the poetry editor of the Ilanot Review, and a visiting lecturer in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at Bar Ilan University, Tel Aviv.

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