> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Two Poems by Emily Skillings - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/two-poems-by-emily-skillings/ - Published: 2015-12-09T12:03:51.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T16:42:47.000Z - Description: Our poetry editor, Joe Pan, has selected two poems by Emily Skillings for his series that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers. - Author: Joe Pan - Tags: Poetry, Hyperallergic Poetry, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:13 (2014, 2015, part 3) *Our poetry editor, Joe Pan, has selected two poems by Emily Skillings for* [*his series*](http://hyperallergic.com/tag/hyperallergic-poetry/) *that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers.* *\* \* \** ![Dara Cerv, "The Hardest Thing about it is the Guesswork," paper, glue, 8.5 x 11 inches (image courtesy the artist)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/thehardestpart-75dpi-1.jpg) Dara Cerv, “The Hardest Thing about it is the Guesswork,” paper, glue, 8.5 x 11 inches (image courtesy the artist) ## Fort Not I’m not really that kind of smart. Sometimes I can hardly. I hear a little bell and a film gets all over. Twice yesterday, actually, the imagined consensual entered. Held onto for a long time. A shriek parade was ordered by the county. The new gender I wanted to become was actually more of an arm movement—simultaneously strong, accurate, elegant, lilting and weaponized. Scrolling white text opened doors to previous anticipation. The opening credits came on last, all puffed out with options. I did this very gentle tapping to activate the month in my skull. I watched some massage-related porn for purely relaxational purposes, locked violets and crystals in the gun safe. Mold bloomed on the ceiling in the museum of best practices. Everyone got sour. If it’s ok to cry in this widening, groaning hall, I’ll do it after I sign for the deliveries. The smallest muscles in my hands are hard at work generating a closeness to god that is rare in these parts. When I end the American movie and it rains all over the Puget Sound, will you shepherd me to the opposite of safety. Place one hand at the small of my wreck. Pour out every single refreshment. There’s so many savings and so little time. Sally wore a bathing suit. Nobody’s home at the Holiday Inn Express. The scenic route drowned a long time ago. Didn’t you know? Water froze in the generation. ## Your Daughter Is Missing please help us in the search your daughter is missing your lovely daughter is missing your happy, bright, and funny girl vanished, reported gone she was wearing a pink sweatshirt the last time the color of a lamb’s tongue when she was last seen when she went missing, your child I’m sorry but when did you notice the empty yard was last out front nothing in her hands waiting for nothing standing, waiting for the day to slap her in her blank face and take her out dirty blonde, green, little rubber sandals answers to the name All That Is Good shorts with turtles, braided string ankle, answers to the name Outline of a Garment answers to the name Cultural Wound last seen sometime last seen alone half past the hour every hour that passes was there a man it gets harder, less likely any history in the family a shadow, a portal the children at school they say they miss her her teachers say she never finished her lessons her babysitter crosses herself talks to reporters your girl was she gloomy did she look hard at the aquarium was she receiving special attention, gifts on the night she was conceived, did the air smell noxious did you regret her, your child did your street begin to curve ominously if you close your eyes can you see a bootprint video surveillance shows her hands at a counter turning air, pushing coins toward a boy clerk fingers small as necessity an employee saw someone fitting the description of your very young, missing girl marching with a rail spike tied to a tiny staff anointing the local Virgin Mary with red juice we are combing the woods looking for something of her for traces, scraps we’re draining the nearby pond all we found was a plastic arm police found ribbons and hair and scissors and 200 eyelashes in the KFC bathroom perhaps unrelated can you think of the time you were inside, stretching you were folding or were you stirring she had chalk our evidence report details her outline in a bright but sad green then in purple were you the one to trace her body was that before or after noon had she eaten, were you tired were your eyes closed she was out in front maybe she is still alive she looked like a girl holding a smaller girl holding an even smaller girl maybe in her hands was the figure of a young girl or a warming cup of water she was only an age, so free not enough language to take her she barely made it out of you alive standing and squinting into the garden she was wearing a redder version of herself your very young girl every hour that passes her blood gets sweeter she was only just a little idea of a thing your missing daughter she has bitten us torn something away did you notice anything could you tell us the last time we are combing the woods we are needing, all of us, to know what happened to her \* \* \* [Emily Skillings](http://poorclaudia.org/crush/emily-skillings-five-poems/?ref=hyperallergic.com) is a dancer and a poet. She is the author of two chapbooks: [*Backchannels* ](http://poorclaudia.org/backchannel-emily-skillings/?ref=hyperallergic.com)(Poor Claudia) and *Linnaeus: The 26 Sexual Practices of Plants* (No, Dear/Small Anchor Press). Recent poems can be found/are forthcoming in *LitHub, jubilat*, *Pleiades*, *Phantom Limb, Philadelphia Review of Books, Stonecutter, Bone Bouquet, Big Lucks,* and *Poor Claudia :: Crush*. She lives in Brooklyn, where she is a member of the Belladonna\* Collaborative, a feminist poetry collective and event series. With poet Adam Fitzgerald, she co-curated the exhibit “John Ashbery Collects: Poet Among Things” at Loretta Howard Gallery. She is an MFA candidate at Columbia University and runs the Earshot reading series with Allyson Paty.