Melissa Studdard Poems

The Orinoco overflows from a goblet,
spouts from the center as though
water had wings. I'm telling you,
this goblet rests on a table
...

- for Rosalind

Because I was a cave,
and you were the bird that flew through
...

Watching your mouth as you eat I think
perhaps an apple is the universe and your body
is an orchard full of trees. I've seen the way your leaves
cling to the ground in fall, and I noted then
...

—inspired by the Remedios Varo painting To Be Reborn


To be reborn,
...

—After Thich Nhat Hanh


It looked like a pancake,
...

The language of your thighs-
decapitated matches
still burning, decapitated verbs
spun loose, your body a woodshed
...