{"id":64,"date":"2015-11-16T07:17:41","date_gmt":"2015-11-16T13:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thespectacle.wpengine.com\/?p=64"},"modified":"2016-05-11T11:23:10","modified_gmt":"2016-05-11T16:23:10","slug":"kiki-petrosino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/?p=64","title":{"rendered":"Poetry by Kiki Petrosino"},"content":{"rendered":"

First Girdle<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

For this glob of a girl who feeds like a grub. For her teeming belly-apron. For\u00a0her frowning navel, sunk like a moon in the night-night lake. For the soft\u00a0eggs of flab that hatch in her. Those marbled thighs & indigo veins. That\u00a0mattress flank. This wants a form of firmness, extra-full control with capri-leg grips: nude, pink, black, or blood-blue lace tacked down with hidden\u00a0latex. She\u2019s primed now, a poreless receptacle for presidential-fitness-test-sweat. But consider the criss-crossed orbitals of redness at her waist. Note\u00a0the pinching tugs she sneaks to force the hems of her culottes down. Now\u00a0give her some tape, a belt, a body-liner. Give her a diamond-textured skin for\u00a0prowling dark kitchens after bed. Enough pastel mesh to hold the semi-sweet\u00a0chips melting in her palms. To suspend the cold ingots of white butter she\u00a0thumbs from the fridge. Can\u2019t you come up with a cord to forgive her with?\u00a0Some sort of shaper that may shunt her starfish hands & aphid appetite? At\u00a0night, at night, when all her dream-wishes rise as serpents of smoke on the\u00a0tongue\u2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Images<\/a>

ingyinghong.com<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Bikini Bridge<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stay as long as you like in the water-green shade.
\nYour blouse sticks to your back in tiny ridges, but your face is cool.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t your country. You don\u2019t know the bridge-maker who sank his tools
\nin the sea.<\/p>\n

A breeze twists up your bare legs: recall
\none June morning, when you planted your cold wish under a pink sun.<\/p>\n

Now take the spade from your satchel & begin to dig. People say the earth is
\na body.<\/p>\n

You disagree.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n

Kiki Petrosino is the author of two books of poetry: Hymn for the Black Terrific <\/i>(2013) <\/i>and Fort Red Border <\/i>(2009), both from Sarabande Books. She holds graduate degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry<\/i>, The New York Times, FENCE, Gulf Coast, Jubilat, Tin House<\/i> and elsewhere. She is founder and co-editor of Transom<\/i>, an independent on-line poetry journal. She is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Louisville, where she directs the Creative Writing Program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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