8 December 2008 | Vol. 8, No. 4
Nude Girls to Pluto
I shoved naked photographs of me
into the sewer
after the breakup, to prevent
them from appearing
near adds for cello lessons
pinned in our grocery store. Though
it's true the prude
green bodice of winter corn could use
some daring rip, an exposed
nipple's pearl, and the juiced
pomegranates I'd name suitable
rivals for my lips, the puckered
money of the apple. My song went
my clothes and books and drawings
he flung into the black street bellied up
white, like squirrel under hawk,
and the dirty photos he threatened to mail
to my father, la la… We broke even
when I'd given my twenty-seven
secret positions
to the underworld, Kama Sutra
to the city's blue pipes—blue balls
to the ottoman's
jilted leather. I gave all my
nude girls to Pluto, the old
god-rock. My harem to the gutter rat's
black forgetting river.
About the author:
Anna Journey is the author of If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting (University of Georgia Press, 2009), winner of the National Poetry Series. She's currently a PhD candidate in creative writing and literature at the University of Houston, where she also serves as a poetry editor for Gulf Coast.
For further reading:
See the complete list of work by Anna Journey at 42opus. Browse the contents of 42opus Vol. 8, No. 4, where "Nude Girls to Pluto" ran on December 8, 2008. List other work with these same labels: poetry.
