Berries

In the painting Gabrielle d'Estrees
et sa soeur, it is the sister whose nipple
Gabrielle is ready to pluck,
her two fingers, the thumb and the third
pressed around the knot the breast strains
into, pimpled as raspberries, Gabrielle
making the shape of a b for the deaf,
the shape of the hand in the act of meditation,
breathing in and out so that all she can hear
is the clasp and unclasp of her pulse,
and if she brings her hand to her nose,
it is bitter, resinous from the tree this seabird
lands in, and if there is taste,
for one does not pluck without tasting,
it is damp, warm, unsweetened.

Melissa Kwasny
Thistle
The Idaho Prize 2005
Selected by Christopher Howell
Lost Horse Press

Copyright © 2005 Melissa Kwasny.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.

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