Robert Beveridge
Brίsingamen 1
To Constance V. Plumley
“When I look at you,” I said
as I stroked the part of your belly
rippled with stretch marks like a pond
in the midst of a feeding frenzy, “when I look
at this part of you, I see Johnny.”
You paused. “I gave birth to him
and sometimes even I have trouble seeing that.”
There was a hitch in your voice, a stumble
against the kind of hostile architecture
that can only be erected by one’s own mind.
“All these things about you tell their own stories.”
I traced the scar next to your right Achilles tendon,
that diamond shape that appears in your back
when you bend to the left, the hitch in your bottom lip.
I’ve called you beautiful so many times
you hear it in full when you see my mouth form
the first syllable. I am not the prayerful type
but if something is out there listening, I beg
it lets you believe me someday the same way
I believe you when you say the same.
as I stroked the part of your belly
rippled with stretch marks like a pond
in the midst of a feeding frenzy, “when I look
at this part of you, I see Johnny.”
You paused. “I gave birth to him
and sometimes even I have trouble seeing that.”
There was a hitch in your voice, a stumble
against the kind of hostile architecture
that can only be erected by one’s own mind.
“All these things about you tell their own stories.”
I traced the scar next to your right Achilles tendon,
that diamond shape that appears in your back
when you bend to the left, the hitch in your bottom lip.
I’ve called you beautiful so many times
you hear it in full when you see my mouth form
the first syllable. I am not the prayerful type
but if something is out there listening, I beg
it lets you believe me someday the same way
I believe you when you say the same.
1 In Icelandic mythology, the name of the necklace worn by Freyja, goddess of beauty.
Robert Beveridge (he/him) makes noise (xterminal.bandcamp.com) and writes poetry on unceded Mingo land (Akron, OH). He published his first poem in a non-vanity/non-school publication in November 1988, and it's been all downhill since. Recent/upcoming appearances in The Loch Raven Review, Moirai, and The Short of It, among others.
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