EVERYONE IN ME IS A BIRD
by Melissa Studdard
Mind was a prison, ruby lined
in its lipstick noir—everything woman
I was expected to be, trapped between
papered walls. What they said to do, I did not
but only levitated at the burning,
the body a water in which I drowned, the life
a windshield dirty with love. What they
said to think, I thought not but instead made
my mind into a birdcage with wings.
Title from a poem by Anne Sexton
Melissa Studdard is the author of I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast
(Saint Julian Press, 2014). She is a professor at Lone Star College-Tomball
and lives in Houston, Texas.
by Melissa Studdard
Mind was a prison, ruby lined
in its lipstick noir—everything woman
I was expected to be, trapped between
papered walls. What they said to do, I did not
but only levitated at the burning,
the body a water in which I drowned, the life
a windshield dirty with love. What they
said to think, I thought not but instead made
my mind into a birdcage with wings.
Title from a poem by Anne Sexton
Melissa Studdard is the author of I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast
(Saint Julian Press, 2014). She is a professor at Lone Star College-Tomball
and lives in Houston, Texas.
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