Drama Class
I want to wear a blue feather boa
smoke clear bonfire dust through a paper roll
perch on a summit 4,000 ft above the ground on a mountain
with a tiara balanced in my curls. I want to wear those
skinny strappy heels I bought sophomore year of high school,
with faux silver leather and the little buckles. I want to wear
a chainmail link top that wasn’t made to cover my wide set breasts,
that wasn’t made to flatter my wide set shoulders, smudge eyeliner
on my eyelids and wear my black leggings so my thighs don’t chafe.
I don’t think the trees would care. I don’t think the wolves would howl
any louder, the deer tread any softer, the spiders weave any webs
less delicate and reflective, the sun showing that single strand –
I want this to be normal. I want to do all of this and sit in the dirt,
stand on the stone and be as natural as the green and the gray for it.
…..
This poem is from the chapbook Aurora Uteralis by Katie Mihalek (Finishing Line Press) and is available at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/aurora-uteralis-by-katie-mihalek/
Aurora Uteralis blurs the lines between the #plant and the #body as #poems deliberate on sexuality, autonomy, and the different facets of emotional intimacy we carry. The poems simultaneously live within the world of the body, not shying away from imagery of stretch marks and vaginal fluid, while bridging this inner world to one of shriveled sage plants, clamshells, and cockroaches. Unexpected pairings of body and nature ask us to look more closely at ourselves through the growth, decay, and dirt of life around us. From neurons and maple leaves to electrocardiograms and lightning, these poems are intensely personal as they discover how the body is seen, loved, and grieved through environment.
Katie Mihalek is a writer whose poems have appeared in Frontier, Sheila-Na-Gig, Spectrum, Beyond Words, and elsewhere. She is the author of the chapbook Aurora Uteralis at Finishing Line Press. She has earned a M.S. in Medical Sciences from Boston University and, most recently, an MFA in Creative Writing at Emerson College, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of Redivider. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.
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