"I Had Travelled Far Enough" by Heidi Seaborn

I Had Travelled Far Enough

— an ekphrastic of Nothing Lasts Forever by the artist Kelly O’Dell

I had travelled far enough.
Knew to dig my fingernail through skin,

winnow a slight tag

to tug, deftly rend

rind from fruit, slowly,

a ribbon. Even so, the white
membrane caught, tore

the fruit, bleeding
juice   my fingers
luring bees to leave the sweet
gardenia alone.

Hum a house by the sea.

Finches nest
in an orange tree.
Inside, a woman nurses a baby.

The lighthouse flares orange,
guiding
the image
burned onto my body

as I peel skin
from membrane
from heart.

heidi seaborn

Heidi Seaborn is the author of the award-winning debut book of poetry, Give a Girl Chaos (see what she can do), C&R Press / Mastodon Books, March 2019. She is the Editorial Director for The Adroit Journal and a New York University MFA candidate. Since Heidi started writing in 2016, she’s won or been shortlisted for nearly two dozen awards, including the International Rita Dove Award in Poetry, and published in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Missouri Review, Mississippi Review, Penn Review, Nimrod, a chapbook, and a political pamphlet. She graduated from Stanford University and is on the board of Tupelo Press.

Headshot: Rosanne Olson

Photo Credit: Staff