Melissa Broder: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ahoy!

 

By the gates of the walled lung

we stand circled in the dark.

 

We’ve come through his throat

by ship.

 

I say What if he hiccups?

 

I am channeling my grandmom’s fears

of common colds and foreign air.

The women judge me silly.

 

They say Unsisterly!

Your angst is old, so old.

 

To prove myself fierce

I run down the danger corridor

of his guts to his intestines.

 

There are cabbages and acid.

There are meat screams

and a fancy market.

 

I am relieved to discover

my favorite gourmet yogurt

with full nutrition labeling.

 

Indulging in a blueberry variety

on the banks of his duodenum

I watch the villi sway.

 

It’s a scene nearing Monet’s La Rivière

but I am not a visual person.

 

My mind is full of letters.

 

I say Help me be a sister.

I mean to say Don’t make me die alone.

 

Back at the lung

roommates have been chosen.

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Melissa Broder is the author of the novels Death Valley (October 2023), Milkfed, and The Pisces, the essay collection So Sad Today, and five poetry collections, including Superdoom: Selected Poems and Last Sext. She lives in LA.  [Photo of the poet by Petra Collins.]

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                                                                          Claude Monet, La Rivière, 1881

 

       

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