LAYING ON MY BACK

Hey, y’all.

For Day 16 of National Poetry Writing Month, the prompt is to:

Write a poem in which you closely describe an object or place, and then end with a much more abstract line that doesn’t seemingly have anything to do with that object or place, but which, of course, really does. The “surprise” ending to this James Wright poem is a good illustration of the effect we’re hoping you’ll achieve. An abstract, philosophical kind of statement closing out a poem that is otherwise intensely focused on physical, sensory details.

Here is my poem:

LAYING ON MY BACK

By Farah Lawal Harris, 2024

On my chest sit

bags of sand.

Almost 40-year-old version,

me with artificial titties.

9 months since the double mastectomy

and when I hear the sound of AC, I glance down to see

phantom nipples hardening.

Gone.

They’re really gone.

I can finally buy a bra from Target, y’all.