IN WHICH SKINNY DIPPING RESTORES A VOICE BY ANNA SWANSON You have come to speak one-on-one
breathe. That harmless fire—
with the world. Not danger exactly,
not yours. You are alive. Your fine fat
just that your fire has become harmless,
facts. Your unsweetened tongue.
your hope tastes like aspartame
Speak now like a child who is
& your thirst cannot remember
also an alligator. Speak your hazards,
what it wants. An illustrated book
your hardwood, glass-fibred barbs
of hazards & antibodies & small
& kiln-dried wants. Library of starched
careful passions. Your questions,
passions, impossible flames small
plastic toys that make no mark.
as almonds. Speak the apples
What is it you want? The world
of your green-bodied attention
holds out its world-sized palm
& your unauthorized animal moons.
filled with water. Leave your bright
Speak hot & necessary like calories,
packaging on the rock. Make cold contact.
like antibodies.
Your face, your ribs. Your assembled
Like fire.
damage & cravings. Stay under. Lose your left & your right. Lose your receipts & your schedules & your adhesive
Note: All words (with the exception of title) transcribed
outline. Come back up breathless &
from garbage found in the Punch Bowl Pond, St. John’s, NL.
A Voices from the FOLD: Year 7 original poem 14
(Winner, Senior Poetry division, 2018 Government of Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Awards).
