Bevel by Reuben Gelley Newman Jasper Johns, Pinion, Lithograph, 1963-1966; after Elizabeth Bishop Hang a wire beneath a spread of plenty. Choose a specific word with a meaning No one quite knows. Diagram yourself As ruler, thermometer, ambiguous Cans of soup. Painstakingly Test the temperature of the invisible Cake in the baking pan. Set the timer again: when it buzzes, take the cake and run with it. Crash the wedding. Rub Your body on the page. Say you don’t understand. Foot, foot, knee, hand, hand.
First published in Petrichor
I really really like this almost-sonnet. The way it moves down the shape, and the way the narrowing of it fits the subject matter. The implications of the invisible cake. Invisible dreams? Invisible love? And the rhyme gives the end a feeling of certainty which is ironic in the context of the poem's uncertainty. And thanks for introducing me to a journal I hadn't heard of, or if I had heard of it, I'd forgotten about.
Great poem from a next-level poet.
-Seth
editor, petrichor