Congratulations to Blake Lapin for winning the Poetry Award in the Scripps College Journal 2019 Writing & Art Contest!
~
This human form is divine.
I lay myself outright on the lawn
& let each distinction bulge,
Trace a finger around my obliques, my triceps, my pectorals.
Pink and white clefts remain on the skin.
I speculate about what part of the trauma will scar.
That ocean wave has not so completely vanished.
It’s akin, maybe, to a rodent’s lasting decision
As my mother baked dinosaur chicken nuggets years ago,
In a tiny New York City apartment:
She, my mother, opened the stove
To find the rat too fried to lament.