Inventory of Shapes

Lip-shape. Little-flame shapes, flicker-shaped.  Waxy-pink
-petaled shape.
            Shape of your nose—generational-shape?
The shape of your lips on my breasts.
                                                            The shape my throat
makes swallowing champagne. Toasty bubbles.

The shape the ocean makes giving up
                                                             a twenty-pound thrashing striper.

Spider web shapes in dew on June grass.
Shape of your rounded shoulder in
my favorite gray tee. Shape of your
                                                            clavicle under my fingertip.

Shape the downy woodpecker’s
                                                  tail gripping onto the suet cage.
Shape of my son’s smile reaching 
                                                           into his brown eyes.

The shape of our bodies as we lie
                                                             on the bed and I turn myself
                                                             towards you. 

The shape of the Squannacook river as it runs
                                                                        over the large brown rocks.

                            Unidentified shape of the wind tossing
                            the crests of the tall pine trees on August’s
most shapeless of days.

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Carol Berg’s poems are forthcoming or in Crab Creek Review (Poetry Finalist, 2017), DMQ Review, Sou’wester, The Journal, Spillway, Redactions, Radar Poetry, andVerse Wisconsin. Her recent chapbook, The Johnson Girls, is available from dancing girl press. She was winner of a scholarship to Poets on the Coast and a recipient of a Finalist’s Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.