Pushing 40
Rent from DeepDyve- Pushing 40
You're getting so big, my father said,I'll have to pound you down. His handon my head, light tapping with his fist.Get a brick and pound you. I rodeon his feet to the bedroom, gave himbutterfly kisses. I loved it, never didget tall. Nor willowy, nor beautiful . . .
Near forty, I still have acne; put me downin a lunchroom and I'm stillterrified. At sixteen I loved a tragic boywho knew it and called me a dyke.I still have a heart like a camera. Too muchshine gets in it. Everything's over-exposed. [End Page 123]
Anne Shaw is the author of Undertow, winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky Poetry Prize, and the forthcoming Shatter and Thrust (Persea Books). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous literary journals, including Harvard Review, Black Warrior Review, Copper Nickel, Crab Orchard Review, and Hotel Amerika. Her extended poetry project can be found on Twitter at twitter.com/anneshaw.
