Not Your Bitch–Poetry Series #11
Featuring Lyn Lifshin
MAYBE VENUS DE MILO WASN’T HAPPY WITH HERS
So with one gone,
at least, she could
pose not showing
what was no longer
what it was. Arms.
You lift weights,
stay thin but then
suddenly it’s as if
earth’s kiss was so
strong and they
were too vulnerable,
didn’t have it in
them to resist. May
be pushing more
men off would have
helped. Or pulling
what seemed so
resistant closer,
working the burn,
terrified of being
burnt and not giving
my arms over to the
sun when he backed
away from them
and never slicing a
wrist or arm off
like Venus as if with
out him adoring
perfect skin, there
wasn’t anything
worth holding
Just out from Lyn Lifshin: THE LICORICE DAUGHTER: MYYEAR WITH RUFFIAN, Texas Review Press. Also just out: ANOTHER WOMAN WHO LOOKS LIKE ME from Black Sparrow at Godine.. She has over 120 books & edited 4 anthologies. Her website: http://www.lynlifshin.com .Her last two Black Sparrow books, COLD COMFORT and BEFORE IT’S LIGHT won Paterson Review Awards. New also: IN MIRRORS, AN UNFINISHED STORY, THE DAUGHTER I DON’T HAVE, SHE WAS FOUND TREADING WATER, DESIRE, 92 RAPPLE and BARBARO:BEYOND BROKENNESS, PERSEPHONE, TSUNAMI, LOST IN THE FOG, DRIFTING, ALL THE POETS WHO HAVE TOUCHED ME (LIVING AND DEAD) ALL TRUE: ESPECIALLY THE LIES , PERSEPHONE, LIGHT AT THE END. DESIRE
great flow, good poem