Here is how I control my heart: I string each thought one behind the next, like beads.
I wear the answers I am waiting to give. The jewelry becomes heavy as soil.
My long blink is a scream & a yes. There are things I have to say, but they do not yet know the questions they must ask. & a blink is no word; if they misunderstand-

A heart is just soil. Ask anyone. A heartbeat is a blink. A long blink is a scream. A longer blink is sleep. All night I am screaming.



About this poem
"This poem was inspired by a folk tale, the specifics of which I've long since forgotten, which included a woman paralyzed by magic. I love the brief and strangely dispassionate nature of folk tales for providing a space in which to project imagined experiences, as here, where I approach the claustrophobic and harrowing feeling of being trapped within one's own body."
- Lisa Ciccarello

About Lisa Ciccarello
Lisa Ciccarello is the author of "At Night" (Black Ocean Press, 2015). She lives in Portland, Ore.

***
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.


(c) 2015 Lisa Ciccarello. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate