About the Column:

Poems of Our Climate is a weekly poetry column run by Oliver Egger ’23. Oliver Egger also runs the literary magazine group Route 9, whose literary magazine The Lavender is opening submissions for volume three on Tuesday, Feb. 8! Submit and read past issues of The Lavender at Route9.org.  If you are interested in having your poem featured in this column, Poems of our Climate, please email your work directly to oegger@wesleyan.edu.

 

REFLECTIVE FLESH, 2002

By Jane Hollander ’23

 

a thin crease marks the fold 

of flesh on flesh and upon 

closer inspection, it isn’t just darkness

but reds, greens, and yellows touching, 

vibrating a psychedelic line splicing

the fatty pink underside of a breast

from a soft beige torso 

 

however, the most beautiful description in paint

is not this division of flesh

but the rich and earthen chasm beneath it

dark like humus

red like clay

 

See what I’ve got? Made you flinch by shoving myself at you. Don’t 

worry, I won’t use it on you. Whew.

 

curls of hair,

slick like they’ve been coiffed 

with gel or wetness

which is oddly difficult to find a name for

cum?

female ejaculate?

lubrication?

 

Anyways

 

arresting and flagrant as porn

 

in Saville’s case it’s really linseed oil

or some other varnish

which makes her shine

in the velvet folds between her thighs

 

allows her to situate a lovely face in a painting outre enough to maintain

critical respect

 

it’s powdered pigment, slaps of color

next to one another

or emptiness

big white swaths of thighs, breasts, stomach

 

It would be great to see her apply this same facility to commonplace 

things and people 

 

rather than rely on the spectacle of unappealing bodies and body parts

to get people to stop and not look away.

 

and I can’t look away,

not for some spectacle but

for snow and dirt

powdery limestone and clay

 

the mundane existence of all this soft flesh

reflected in all directions.

 

About the Poet:

Jane Hollander is a junior English major and environmental studies minor who enjoys writing about the experience of being a sentient, sexual being in this crazy world. She enjoys running, hiking, farming, reading, and long conversations with friends.