Pamela Gemin
USA
| Pamela Gemin is author of
two poetry collections--most recently Another Creature
from University of Arkansas Press--and editor / co-editor of
three University of Iowa Press poetry anthologies, most
recently Sweeping Beauty: Women Poets do
Housework. She is a Professor of English at the
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. |
FAT WOMAN WITH
FISHBURGER, FRIES
So long chopping carrots and
counting
grams, she’s almost forgotten
that taste on her tongue of fryer and salt
and sauce as she crosses herself and clutches
the bun with both hands and sighs, my
fault,
my most grievous fault, bright yen
beyond hunger dancing down body’s hot
rungs, a signal in neon like molten
light taking its horrible form in a knot
of want, want, all of what’s in this sack
to its greasy bottom. Forget the pink
bras of sixteen, fold the honeymoon back
to the apple and its ideal; just think
this desire away: Who was the girl
with snail shell
nipples, soaping her breasts with rose
and lavender foam? Look under the swell
of her raised arm: a spray of tiny moles.
Molespray and delicate belly dent, live oyster
of sex open-hinged. Was she ever that creature,
copper hair spread full across a grateful lover’s
chest? Did she ever imagine the future
of her body’s cravings, lust estranged,
warped into this wondrous shape; sweet
riddles of hunger and flesh exchanged,
robust, resplendent, plentiful, replete?
from
Rhino
Page 2
© Copyright, 2012,
Pamela Gemin.
All rights reserved. |