Negative
You swell and grow small
diminish, never
vanishing, the way I would
if I were another woman.
Looking at pictures
of proud and needy naked strangers
I see their flaccid stomachs
breasts full to bursting
hips etched with thick red lines
(unless they are white
or gray in the shadows of the filter).
I see them, support them
but do not smile.
Still, I do not flinch, unless
I imagine their body my body
imagine myself another woman
a different woman. I find
it difficult to do this
and I am left to wonder
how I would be
whole or holy
or only lonely
what it would be—to want
to need
to grow a thing to love.
SERAFINA ROGER’s work has appeared in a number of publications, including Antiphon, About Place, and Boston Accent Lit. Her first chapbook, A Witch’s Education, is forthcoming from Bitterzoet Press.
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