Wrap It in Silk by Melissa Studdard

Wrap It in Silk 

……………………And give it to the dead—the wound 

the doctors can’t repair. Because the ribs 

……………………are a curve in promise 

to the lungs, and the lungs are blessings 

……………………that fill you with sky.

Breathe into the machine as if you’re 

……………………not broken. Breathe as if freeway

and headlights aren’t lodged

……………………beneath your skin. Breathe 

as if your radio hasn’t given up song 

……………………to siren. Ask about your kids 

in the room across the hall. Try to stay 

……………………awake to hear the doctor’s response. 

Google ribs and broken, but don’t   

……………………read the warnings spread out 

before you or the articles about Vikings 

……………………and Blood Eagle torture. Don’t imagine 

how, with wings like that, you could fly. Drive

……………………on the frontage road for an entire

year. Drive home and home and home

……………………until you remember who holds you.

Melissa Studdard is the author of two poetry collections, I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast, and Dear Selection Committee (forthcoming summer 2021), and the chapbook Like a Bird with a Thousand Wings. Her work has been featured by PBS, NPR, The New York Times, The Guardian, and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series, and has also appeared in periodicals such as POETRY, Kenyon Review, Psychology Today, New Ohio Review, Harvard Review, Missouri Review, and New England Review. Her Awards include The Penn Review Poetry Prize, the Tom Howard Prize from Winning Writers, the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, and more. 

8 November 2021