The Practice of Anaesthetizing
By Alison Daniel

The tendency to fabricate an answer is called
confabulation which is not the same as reduplication
although I remember it didn't matter how similar
circumstances were placed side by side like the time
you cuddled into my back, said, 'let me warm you',
how it always meant sex without seeing your face
so you never knew the girl who begged
you to stray while I wondered how long it would take
to think about playing her against me was perhaps
your first mistake. So many alibis smoothed
your loose tongue but it wasn't until your frontal
lobe flipped out to space that I knew the odds
were against you ever telling the truth.

I live in Australia. My work has been published in Tryst, Pierian Springs, Eleven Bulls, The Absinthe Literary Review, Clean Sheets, Stirring, Junket, Poor Mojo's Almanac(k), August Cutter and many other fine journals.