serenade
By Jill Kitchen
It's #tbt! In honor of our 10th anniversary, we are celebrating our staff members by re-running their work from SWWIM Every Day's archives!
what if you are your own secret affair the warm breath you turn to in the ticking dark of a sleepless night the liquid glow of skin you take into the shower in the afternoon pj harvey's rock and roll strum her low full-throated whisper pulsing against tile what if you are the one who finds your own shape attractive struck by the moonglow from within who sees your own silhouette undressed and takes in everything that this body has been through all the ways it has grown into this knowing wise against the silt edge of the world wind-brushed and beaten by sun eyes crackle-creased by laughter the buttered pear of mothering, this near mane reaching toward earth, these guitar curves of hips you have become the one you wear red lipstick for buy the black lace edged underwear for dance the flamenco for, pulling imaginary apples from low tangled branches over and over with a trill of long, piano-loving fingers you have become the one you write sonnets for the one you sing for with your widest-sky voice against these soft outer walls of snow fragile with the still broken spring you are become this woman that you built from treebark and the hidden stones of other countries from salamander sheen and desert crossings from the way each different language feels on your tongue in the just waking tremble of your mouth in the oracle of your heart muscle, once struck silent you are become this woman you burned for fought for drove across the continent in the middle of the night for this green-eyed woman mirrored back who summons her city within you are still writing this woman song
Jill Kitchen is a poet living in Washington, D.C, though her heart can still be found in Colorado, New York, and London. Her work has been nominated for Best New Poets and Best Small Fictions and appears in Crab Creek Review, The Dodge, Four Way Review, The Iowa Review, Poet Lore, Split Lip Magazine, Tahoma Literary Review, trampset, West Trade Review, and elsewhere. She is at work on her first collection.
09/11 / Poetry Reading and Conversation, a collaboration with Matwaala, with visiting poet-in-residence Nina Sudhakar & local poet Carolene Kurien / The BBar at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live (rsvp here) and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7-8:30 pm EST / Free
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A luscious sensory experience, thank you!