Maria Santa Poggi: Please Sign Here

Photo: Joanna C. Valente

Please Sign Here x______________

I’ve got a cavity and the villain of the story

goes to work in a cheaply made business suit.

I sign myself in ink, not quite sure who I am.

There I was in my birth certificate, who is she?

It’s not my penmanship, not from my dexterity.

In a court of law, it’s the earmark of my identity.

I’d rather you reckon it’s me from my bite marks.

I was present when indents were made in your flesh.

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Maria Santa Poggi is a student at Marymount Manhattan College. Maria has previously been published in The Carson Review, OxMag, and Trnsfr Sip Cup for poetry, and has essays published in Bridge Eight Press and The Roadrunner Review. Maria’s fiction has been published in Maudlin House, and is currently an assistant editor at The Rational Creature.