A Poem by Heather Bartlett

Author: Poetry Editor

January 31, 2018

This week, a poem by Heather Bartlett.

 

Eve

 

There you were:
________a sliver in the pink of my palm

you were the frayed wood
________springing from the table you were

the wrinkled skin inside my fist
________you followed me

up the metal stairs &
________into the warm kitchen you

lit the burner & boiled the water
________you were the steam &

my breath on the cold pane
________turning to ice on the other side

of thick glass you broke
________through & sat on my chest

as I sang slowly shivering &
________barefoot on the cold floor you were

the bloody hole when I pulled
________the sliver out.

——

HEATHER BARTLETT holds an MFA in poetry from Hunter College. Her recent work can be found in Carolina Quarterly, the Los Angeles Review, Ninth Letter, the Rise Up Review, and other journals. She is a lecturer in English at the State University of New York at Cortland, and she lives, writes, and grades papers in upstate NY.