---
title: We played those games too
genre: verse

id: weplayedthosegamestoo
toc: "We played those games too"

project:
    title: Elegies for alternate selves
    class: elegies
    order: 25
    prev:
    - title: Telemarketer
      link: telemarketer
    next:
    - title: 'To Daniel: an elaboration'
      link: todaniel
...

| I saw two Eskimo girls playing a game
| blowing on each other's' vocal cords to make music
| on the tundra.  I thought about how
| once we played the same game
| and the sounds blowing over the cords of our throats
| was the same as a wind over frozen prairie.
| We are the Eskimo girls who played
| the game that night to keep ourselves warm.
| I run my hands over [my daughter][]'s
| voicebox as she hums a song
| about a seal and about killing the seal and about
| skinning it and rendering the blubber
| into clear oil to light lamps.
| I remember you are my lamp.  She remembers
| you although you left before she arrived.
| I can never tell her about you.
| I will never be able to express that taste of your oil
| as we [pushed our throats together][spittle].
| I will never be able to say how
| we share this blemish like conjoined twins.
| I will fail you always to remember you.

[my daughter]: and.html
[spittle]: spittle.html