Before I Lose Myself

By Danielle Boodoo-Fortune

I turn off the light
and let the other self in.

She folds herself into me
Spine notches into spine,

ribs pass through each other
like joinery. Her heartbeat 

chases mine like a fever,
like the sound of something 

slowly being broken,
pressed down against 

itself till it cannot hold.
She is who I might have become

if I was not afraid of being alone.
Here in this dark room, I am both of us.

Danielle Boodoo-Fortune Biography
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Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné is a poet and visual artist from Trinidad and Tobago. Her work has been published in Poetry London, The Rialto, The Prairie Schooner, The Asian American Literary Review, Wasafiri, and others. She was awarded the Wasafiri New Writing Prize in 2016, and shortlisted for the Montreal Poetry Prize in 2017 and 2020. Her first collection of poetry, Doe Songs (Peepal Tree Press, 2018) was awarded the OCM Prize in Caribbean Poetry.