~ Delta Poetry Review ~

Kate Polak

Beginning Again

Late August, we all slump, emerging
from our self-taught wild worlds,
the feral edges of garments worn only
because they must be, or foolhardy,
we wore the season naked, knees
and belly, back growing more beautiful
with each passing mirror, or shell
fingers opening into sand, but now
we come again to beige walls, angles,
underwires and buttons, spreadsheets
and roll call, our toes worrying
our shoes, which used to fit and now,
accustomed to no harness, don’t. Heart
flesh once again spooled around
routine, but to spite discipline, still
our bodies are throbbing beneath.

Kate Polak is an artist, writer, and teacher. Her work has recently appeared in Plainsongs, McSweeney’s, So to Speak, Coffin Bell, The Closed Eye Open, Inverted Syntax, and elsewhere. She lives in south Florida with her familiars and aspires to a swamp hermitage.