And Simply Read by Wendy T. Carlisle

A Young Girl Reading by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, 1776

And Simply Read

But if the body were a kind of book…
                                              Karen Fiser

Imagine it as a rectangle,
small enough for a hand to circle,

lift from the table, slight enough
to bear from chair to bath,

to steady on the rim of a tub,
to skim to the end of

leafing ahead to the obvious
while around you steam rises.

Or suppose a more complicated plot,
one that prods you to locate

the chapter on desire, intention
in the author, one you could explicate.

Lay that one beside you on the bed.
Let it fall open of its own accord
                    and simply read.

by Wendy Taylor Carlisle

Wendy Taylor Carlisle lives in the Arkansas Ozarks. She is the author of two books, Reading Berryman to the Dog and Discount Fireworks (both Jacaranda Books). Her most recent chapbook is Persephone on the Metro, (MadHat Press, 2014.) For more information, check her website at www.wendytaylorcarlisle.com.