Colorfast by Rose McLarney

Author:Rose McLarney [McLarney, Rose]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2024-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

One Kind

Sleeping with her husband, palm pressed to his chest,

she is not thinking of Adam’s rib, the insult of the notion

woman is but a splinter, a derivation of him. She is at rest.

Her love’s ribs bow a bit outward, but he isn’t pigeon-

chested. The bone is not so overgrown. It’s just a little

extra protective layer. Or the cage door is propped ajar.

Say dove-chested, then. Most languages don’t distinguish

between pigeons and doves, as English does. Both

are included in the Latin, are of the order Columbiformes.

But if he is described as a bird, surely it should be the kind

bearing an olive branch meaning peace, no matter the religion.

Suggesting everything that has happened can be gotten over

and trust dredged up again. So she lies curled, fetal, as if to crawl

back into him, go back to zygote, to yolk. Maybe she dreams

that, if he was called keel-chested, at least he might be a boat.

Yes, let him be an ark where a creature can shelter, stay. Refusing

to go ashore, fall under dominion, become a sacrifice, or be divided

from rider into ridden, from those with appetite into flesh eaten.

Choosing not to step out of the kingdom where all are Animalia

and there are no herds, packs, flocks to complicate matters between

mates. (No other cock to show his color, spurs, temper, features

males have in common, but that the hen doesn’t share.) The woman

doesn’t want to remember other men. There is more than one

reason to stay in the tight space of the hold, hunkered in our pairs.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.