Leah Umansky
For Reals
This is what opportunity looks like: this tugging at knots.
It’s in the toggling that we get stuck. One foot always straddling and sometimes we toil.
We weave. We unweave. We leave without looking back; we leave without
straightening
It matters to me. Not, the mattering. Not what is matted, but the unmattering itself. Things,
matter! I want to do. I want to make and I want the making to do wonderous things.
I want the wondering to rise around me. I want it to surface on the upper lip.
[I never cared for crusts.]
If you want me to really go in on it, show me what I’d be risking.
So you know what opportunity looks like :: come closer.
Opportunity knocks. I want to answer. [ I do ] So you know, of course, I want to answer but
certainly, I’m cautious. I see the life I was meant to have. I see it knocking. It’s not at my door
yet, but Yes, Sir, when my bell rings, the bell will break. I will repeat this mantra: Don’t deny
yourself.
Denial is tough to swallow, but delight is peachy. I want digestion and the
satisfaction that follows.
Leah Umansky's first book, Domestic Uncertainties, is out now by BlazeVOX [Books.] Her Mad-Men Inspired chapbook, Don Dreams and I Dream is forthcoming from Kattywompus Press in early 2014. She also hosts and curates the COUPLET Reading Series. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in POETRY, Barrow Street, and The Brooklyn Rail. Read more at: iammyownheroine.com
Return to January 2014 Edition
This is what opportunity looks like: this tugging at knots.
It’s in the toggling that we get stuck. One foot always straddling and sometimes we toil.
We weave. We unweave. We leave without looking back; we leave without
straightening
It matters to me. Not, the mattering. Not what is matted, but the unmattering itself. Things,
matter! I want to do. I want to make and I want the making to do wonderous things.
I want the wondering to rise around me. I want it to surface on the upper lip.
[I never cared for crusts.]
If you want me to really go in on it, show me what I’d be risking.
So you know what opportunity looks like :: come closer.
Opportunity knocks. I want to answer. [ I do ] So you know, of course, I want to answer but
certainly, I’m cautious. I see the life I was meant to have. I see it knocking. It’s not at my door
yet, but Yes, Sir, when my bell rings, the bell will break. I will repeat this mantra: Don’t deny
yourself.
Denial is tough to swallow, but delight is peachy. I want digestion and the
satisfaction that follows.
Leah Umansky's first book, Domestic Uncertainties, is out now by BlazeVOX [Books.] Her Mad-Men Inspired chapbook, Don Dreams and I Dream is forthcoming from Kattywompus Press in early 2014. She also hosts and curates the COUPLET Reading Series. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in POETRY, Barrow Street, and The Brooklyn Rail. Read more at: iammyownheroine.com
Return to January 2014 Edition