Amie Zimmerman

Untitled XI

you said, sculptor that you are, what
would happen so and so

selfish sex can be the only contract

I wanted you to tell me what you wanted
then I knew I didn’t want it after all

do I lie? or
do I lie?

rose haze
the accident of age

to know the truth before it is plain
stiff marble

new—reliable only in newness

pattern completed, replication
the sick source of all desire

Amie Zimmerman is from Portland, Oregon. Her work has been published, or is forthcoming, in West Branch, The Iowa Review, the tiny, Guesthouse, and Bennington Review, among others. She is author of four chapbooks, including Compliance (Essay Press 2018) and, with artist Samantha Wall, the collaboration 31 Days/The Self (Ursus Americanus 2021). Amie lives in upstate New York, where she works as a hairstylist, union organizer, and PhD student.