Cannibal by Open Skies Treaty

For we eat ourselves. And the choice of cut matters. Psychology calls this "negotiation"; I think of it as head trading: the innumerable my head bargains with itself—the moment-by-moment affirmations and denials that determine how I move in the world. Here I explore that along with some ways head trading affects interpersonal relationships and moves our understanding of concepts such as sex and war and religion.

A buzzing thing
with ungrounded electronics
and a bustling house
filled with children
who turn their backs on their oaths
not to play ball in the house
and a blind man
searching for a 9v battery
in the old shoebox
of his deliberations.

Half the time he finds one
he puts it to his tongue,
and: bland metal: a dud.