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+---
+title: 'Statements'
+subtitle: 'a fragment'
+project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
+...
+
+I. Eli {#i.-eli .unnumbered}
+------
+
+"Can one truly describe an emotion?" Eli asked me over the
+walkie-talkie. He was in the bathroom, & had taken the walkie-talkie in
+with him absent-mindedly. I could hear sounds of his piss hitting the
+toilet water.
+
+"I can hear you peeing," I said. He didn't answer so I said in apology,
+"It's okay. Humans are sexually dimorphic." I was sitting on my blue
+baby blanket texting Jon, who was funny and amicable over the phone. He
+made a three-message joke about greedy lawyers and I would have been
+laughing if not for my embarrassment toward Eli. He finally came out of
+the bathroom and kept his eyes straight ahead, toward the wall calendar
+and not at me, as he passed through the family room into his bedroom,
+were he shut the door quietly. Presently I heard some muffled noise as
+he turned on his iPod. I guessed he didn't feel like talking so I stayed
+on my blanket watching the Price is Right and texting Jon.
+
+Drew Carrey was doing his wrap-up speech on TV when Eli finally came out
+of his room, red puffy streaks covering his face. His eyes and nose were
+red too, which was almost festive against the pale green and white of
+the wallpaper. I had been laughing at the goofy costumes on the Price is
+Right and the jokes Jon was texting me, but when Eli came out of the
+room I stopped and just looked at him as well as I could. He was staring
+at my right shoulder as he said, "Go home now."
+
+"What?"
+
+"I said go home now. I don't want you here anymore, because I just
+remembered I have someone coming over and I have to clean."
+
+"Look, Eli, I'm sorry---"
+
+"It doesn't have anything to do with you, I swear. Just go, okay? Go
+home now."
+
+I got up and tried to give him a hug but he withdrew from me sharply. So
+I walked around the coffee table as he sat down, not looking at me
+anymore, and stared at the blank TV. The blanket I had been sitting in
+was crumpled next to him like a dead bird. I opened my mouth but thought
+better of talking, and closed the door behind me slowly.
+
+II. Dimorphic {#ii.-dimorphic .unnumbered}
+-------------
+
+Oranges. Poison. A compromise
+between Mary & Judas. Blue
+baby blankets swaddling greedy lawyers.
+
+Can one truly describe an emotion?
+I cut my ankle with a razor blade.
+I can only go one at a time. Humanity
+has a seething mass of eels
+for a brain, mating in the water so forcefully
+that it could drown you under the moon.
+
+III. Declaration of Poetry {#iii.-declaration-of-poetry .unnumbered}
+--------------------------
+
+You have to go one line at a time, and you have to start on the first or
+second line.