We’re lying in the road
letting the end of the sun
soak into us and you
say, “Is my ribcage showing?”
I roll over and see the stretched flesh,
the gentle pulse, the bones
like a door ajar and oh
I’m starving.
I answer yes and
you sit up to pull a jacket over them.
“Sorry. I don’t know why it’s so
embarrassing. I know everyone
has a ribcage.”
You dream of bridges rising over rivers
clogged with boats and barges,
silver towers somewhere whose thousand lights can
cancel the night but
I only love this place
where life’s nothing
but cows and clay and flowers
bursting through a dump of bones while our homes
lie alone behind us.
I love your cage
of ribs
draped with sun-licked skin.
I’ve watched this world and hauled
one heavy star of wanting.
You’ve felt this world and
galaxies
spin within you.
We’re so close
to the land we learn
ribs are roots that curve
and curve and curve
toward the heart.
Close your eyes, Darling, start
that long slow walk
to those softer parts.
I will follow you.
Britta Nilsson is a Junior at Oconee County High School in Watkinsville, Georgia who loves art and writing. She’s the founder and president of The Comma Collective, a community of teens that meets in local parks to inspire and support each other while making visual and literary art and to support local artists by attending readings and art exhibits. She’s also the editor-in-chief of Ampersand, her school’s literary magazine, and a regular arts columnist for The Oconee Enterprise. She reads, paints, and writes obsessively.
Dr. Parton's Literacy In Place 