Photo by Victoria Strukovskaya on Unsplash
Because I’ve known the perfect
calm of your leg, I can imagine
the curve of your breast, how
gently it might invite my hand. Nothing
would collide. We would reinvent
quiet, and in that instant
the manufacturing of bruises
on continents of women would stop,
the noise of boys needling themselves
into riots would cease (their futures
spared the agony of crossfire), and hate
would no longer inhabit this earth.
But by then, my hand, moved by such
sudden peace, might panic and smother
your otherwise cool breast, keep
its eager, swollen eye from seeing
this world. Slowly, we’d return
to its terrible music.
Sandra Yannone’s debut poetry collection BOATS FOR WOMEN found its perfect home with Salmon Poetry in 2019 after a 21-year journey to publication. Her poetry and book reviews have appeared in PLOUGHSHARES, PRAIRIE SCHOONER, POETRY IRELAND REVIEW, LIVE ENCOUNTERS, WOMEN’S REVIEW OF BOOKS, and elsewhere worldwide. She currently calls Olympia, WA, her most reliable rest stop.