Dark undark

Akanksha Agarwal

A poem about the Radium girls.

eyes fall on breath’s beat,

time.

sun-dial shines,

a woman inside.

that radium glow—

silence.

sticky glow

splashed across

nails

teeth

lips

two-fifty watch faces

until

jaws split,

bone rots,

bodies end.

they knew.

syphilis

dignity’s downfall.

fifty lives for a dollar

a man’s death for a verdict

the fire in five

women

insured a wildfire.

i look up under a lost epitaph,

nights still glow in the dark.