New Bodies by Julieanne Larick

Sharpen the lips with a treatise to the sun

shrink the waist with a gentle couplet,

carve the jaw with soft love,

lengthen its hair with blank verse,

void the voice of rhyme.

Could you birth a new body?

Make sure it’s barren and fraught

wax the eyebrows with a paradox,

enjab the lashes black and long,

curve the nose like assonance.

Wrap my new body tight in a ghazal

rework its form and

set it free.

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Julieanne Larick is a Midwestern Best of the Net-nominated poet. She studies English and Environmental Science at The College of Wooster. Julieanne reads prose for GASHER Journal. She has poems published in perhappened mag, Blue Marble Review, NECTAR Poetry, and others. Her portfolio is http://www.julielarickwriting.com and her Twitter is @crookyshanks.