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Unwanted Inheritance

James Reilly

Like a tumor growing
on my conscience,
I’ve tried for twenty
years to cut you out.

You leave a stain, like
coffee or dry blood,
encrusted on the inside
of my skull; you prowl

in every recess like a dog,
too near the end to show
his blunted teeth. I feel you
in every chauvinistic thought

that creeps, unwelcome, into
my head; you’re in the way
I flinch at keys in locks, the
fact that I can’t see a commercial

with an interracial couple
without wondering how you
would react. I try to starve you
out of mind, depriving you of

space between my ears; even
still, you show up in the mirror
time and again, the dirty
laundry I can’t seem to wash.

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