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Of course light unfurls from her body, and the moon glows gold in the distance.  [...]

by Kathryn Kirkpatrick

Of course light unfurls from her body,
and the moon glows gold in the distance. 

But why does her face float alone in its wings
of turquoise and umber and labia mauve? 

No apple breasts. No belly. Nothing of what
we know of her luscious thighs. 

Instead we are given the brain, its veined
complications. A serene expression, slightly sad. 

Passion has burnished her just beyond heartbreak.
Who are the two in the breast of the dove? 

When she opens the spiral of her third eye,
she is not entirely alone. 

Neither is she wholly accompanied.

Kathyrn-Kirkpatrick

Kathryn Kirkpatrick


Kathryn Kirkpatrick, poet and literary scholar, is the author of seven collections of poetry, including Our Held Animal Breath (2012), which was selected by poet Chard DeNiord for the NC Poetry Society’s Brockman-Campbell Award.

She is also the editor of two collections of essays on Irish writers, Border Crossings: Irish Women Writers and National Identities (University of Alabama Press, 2000) and, with Borbála Faragó, Animals in Irish Literature and Culture (Palgrave, 2015).

Find out more here.

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