Self Portrait as Not Dead Yet
The body is no modesty, feigned or other.
The less pretty wedged
between the tiny diamonds
of our skin,
a testament to decorate,
erase and to refine
bringing the line in line
with the pleasing composition,
the method and the message
we can live with.
If A then B.
If A is painful
B is worth it.
A split melon
with its sticky sweet juice
and the spilling seeds
is domesticity:
a stunned hawk is a study:
so the rose of a girl’s face
is a laboratory
for observing
the spread of blight,
if you believe that having a look of knowledge
is cause
to prune back
to the cane and starting graft,
where surely some wild strain
remains, brought forth
by this hand, reaching for a ripe fruit.