Erasure

from Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space

A house built
by and for the body,

like a shell,
is commanded

by the inside,
on the inside.

Nothing else
but the body

of a bird.
The female,

a living tower,
an active pressure.

A bird’s very person,
its suffering.

A swelling fruit,
a garment-house.

A personal house,
a nest.

Ashley Roach-Freiman is a librarian and poet with work appearing or forthcoming in Bone Bouquet, Fugue, THRUSH Poetry Journal, Southern Women’s Review, The Literary Review, Ghost Proposal, and Nightjar Review. She has been a writer in residence at Crosstown Arts and the Sundress Academy of the Arts. The chapbook Bright Along the Body is available from dancing girl press. Find out more at ashleyroachfreiman.com.