Rachel Milligan
To The Voice To Which You Speak
Most of the time
I’m a one-person
contest: To Think
the Worst Thing
Like did you leave
us because
you couldn’t get
what you want
What did
it feel like
to define it
to delineate
the borders of
your want
with that string
Did you know
I was someone
you were leaving
Though I know
how to erase
a history
without dying
who doesn’t
want to choose
the cleanest
route. Do you
still want?
The morning
someone on
the street tells
me I am THE
ENEMY THE
ENEMY THE
ENEMY I
wonder what
it would be
like if I
did not take
every piece
of life straight
to my droning
hold indefinitely
What voice
would come out
Whose hand
Which bouquet
Rachel Milligan is a poet in Philadelphia. She is the author of Queen Carrion, chosen by Mary Ruefle as a finalist in the BOAAT Press 2015 Summer Chapbook Competition. She graduated from Temple University, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and the US Department of State Critical Language Scholarship Program in Chinese. Her work can be found in Sixth Finch, The Iowa Review, BOAAT, smoking glue gun, and elsewhere.