Amanda Gunn
Venus
Oh miracle, oh Venus as the one
of Willendorf, now washed
in sweat, beyond
the possibility of motherhood. Tonight
you’ve blessed my living room, reclined upon
the couch as on
a chaise. And stripped of all the things
that make you seem
a paradox: the working boots, the hems
that draw you in. What’s left?
A hip that splays and asks
for no excuse. A breast that slacks against
a hairy pit. The open hand you’ve used
to every end, as when we woke
to please yourself and me. The heavy knee, the soft
and massive belly. Here,
naked, you’re free. I wonder what it means
for you to have
this body you were dealt
if, when you dress, it’s armor that you wear, made
for a man. And what it means that I
should love you best
when you’re bare: a goddess,
calm, at rest.
Amanda Gunn is the recipient of the 2014 Auburn Witness Poetry Prize Honoring Jake Adam York. She lives and teaches in Baltimore, Maryland, where she is an MFA candidate and Owens Scholars Fellow in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Redivider, Southern Humanities Review, New South, and others.
Return to March 2015 Edition
Oh miracle, oh Venus as the one
of Willendorf, now washed
in sweat, beyond
the possibility of motherhood. Tonight
you’ve blessed my living room, reclined upon
the couch as on
a chaise. And stripped of all the things
that make you seem
a paradox: the working boots, the hems
that draw you in. What’s left?
A hip that splays and asks
for no excuse. A breast that slacks against
a hairy pit. The open hand you’ve used
to every end, as when we woke
to please yourself and me. The heavy knee, the soft
and massive belly. Here,
naked, you’re free. I wonder what it means
for you to have
this body you were dealt
if, when you dress, it’s armor that you wear, made
for a man. And what it means that I
should love you best
when you’re bare: a goddess,
calm, at rest.
Amanda Gunn is the recipient of the 2014 Auburn Witness Poetry Prize Honoring Jake Adam York. She lives and teaches in Baltimore, Maryland, where she is an MFA candidate and Owens Scholars Fellow in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Redivider, Southern Humanities Review, New South, and others.
Return to March 2015 Edition