The Nature of Shelter

The Nature of Shelter Brenda Shaughnessy (bio) Humans need shelter and space —but beauty eyes space for itself. Airis a medium, a mere translator a mule—predetermined life as carrier unto Death. I want molecules upon moleculesto ebb out my eyes and entermy mouth, are you molecules? Do you dare smoke in winter for the sex air? Soliloquy has it out for me, handlinginner space like an amphitheaterof all middle seats. Can't hear myself? Or can't remember? Or forgot I heard. I followed you, hem and whiskeron fire to the fire.Home was a blister rubbed open & looking burnt, nervous flesh every day, left out. [End Page 12] The branch will hold, my shelterand the false animal everywherecracks an egg on the sidewalk just to see it become itself as if under another sun. Traveling to a new home paintedshell pink, god's membrane,filthy memory, release me: shed from my meat— I'll fill every wave. [End Page 13] Brenda Shaughnessy brenda shaughnessy is the author of six poetry collections, including Tanya (2023) and The Octopus Museum (2019). The recipient of awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute, and elsewhere, she teaches at Rutgers University-Newark. Copyright © 2023 Yale University