If I Ever Mistake You For a Poem
No body was ever composed
from words, not the hipswayof verse, the iambic beat of a heart.
Yet inside you, a sestinaof arteries, the villanelle of villi,
sonnets between your shoulder blades.If I were more obsessive I’d follow
the alliteration of age spots acrossyour arms. But I have exchanged
my microscope for a stethoscopeas I want to listen inside you, past
your repetition, your free verse of skin.How easy it is to fall for your internal
organs. Your arrhythmia is charminghidden in the ballad of body,
your gurgling stanzas, your lyric sigh.
If I Ever Mistake You For a Poem by Kelli Russell Agodo
$14.99Price
Kelli Russell Agodon (she/her) Poet / Editor / Faculty at PLU's MFA program, the Rainier Writing Workshop Author of Dialogues with Rising Tides (Copper Canyon Press)
