NELLE 8 | 2025
—after Ellen Bass
to have life, to have life especially when
it’s too grand to seem real, the freewheeling
euphoria, a train
gone off the track barreling up
a cliff, defying gravity,
is rare enough. Your morphing hands
larger by the second, your skin
no longer black, is rare enough.
Your sparkling translucence. Daylight
passing through your exquisite wholeness.
You think, How can a body be
this much being? And life stands there,
a nude woman. Vulnerable
and proud. Hold her small body tight
with warm, sure handling. Gratitude
like an arrythmia will jostle
you both. Steady yourself. Look her
smack in the eye and say my god
I love, yes, how I loved it once.