ANATOMY LESSON

The test has always been your
eyes those clear blue eyes so full
of things you haven't mentioned to your

body some whole lobe of animal brain
walled off from you from inside your
eyes know they crook a finger whisper

a come hither and I rise and rise and
rise your barbless hook a siren song
I hear through walls The test has always

been your blood the pulse I palpate in your
temple and my belly a fever in your summer
brain your feet in winter and my perpetual

spring The test has always been your
distance and my desire the paradox of open
palms and presence of balance at the fulcrum

of Mozart and Bohemian drums of symposia and
symbiosis and fundamental faith in flight in falling
out into the air over and over and over again

© Joan Barton, 1998

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