Why I Am Always Beginning / With “This Is How I Feel”

I read about a slice of pizza

I want to eat a slice

last night I looked at pictures of stillborns on the internet

a bassinet with an in-unit cooling device

I tried to get to the article but it was behind a paywall

Tepid liquid moisturizing the bottle
you jerk your head
at a noise out of place
the car horn splits you
metal on metal
stiff peaks of cream on a whisk
Qanon toppers
spirals on a slice
perfectly fine cake

I must have more compassion
I came here in a tizzy

the cymbals

crush me squares

on the wall fabric absorbs
the ambient noise
an ancient protector

broadcasting in a box near the ceiling

when I press back into it

when I spur the cochlea to rasp the drum of my infant ear

—

from I’ve Created a Thing That Will Never Bring Me Pleasure–published by Pity Milk

Buy the chapbook here

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Margaret Saigh is the author of three chapbooks, most recently, I’ve Created A Thing That  Will Never Bring Me Pleasure (Pitymilk 2025) and the creator of circlet, a poetry workshop and reading series. Her writing has been published widely in print and across the web. She received an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh.