---
title: 'We played those games too'
project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
...

I saw two Eskimo girls playing a game \
blowing on each other's' vocal chords to make music \
on the tundra.  I thought about how \
once we played the same game \
and the sounds blowing over the chords of our throats \
was the same as a wind over frozen prairie.  \
We are the Eskimo girls who played \
the game that night to keep ourselves warm.  \
I run my hands over [my daughter][]'s \
voicebox as she hums a song \
about a seal and about killing the seal and about \
skinning it and rendering the blubber \
into clear oil to light lamps.  \
I remember you are my lamp.  She remembers \
you although you left before she arrived.  \
I can never tell her about you.  \
I will never be able to express that taste of your oil \
as we [pushed our throats together][spittle].  \
I will never be able to say how \
we share this blemish like conjoined twins.  \
I will fail you always to remember you.

[my daughter]: 08-and.html
[spittle]: 34-spittle.html