It’s not hard being quiet—
I just listen to my own hands, she says.
I am naked under cream sheets and velour, eyelashes
resting on the coast of my blushed cheeks.
The spa exhales a silent, sweet salt.
I don’t even hear the bottle open as she smoothes sandalwood
scent over my skin, forms it like a potter
at the wheel of my spine, pressing firm
elbows into tissue, How does that feel?
works out each knot.
I can get lost in a body, she tells me.
I want to put my life on the table, see the miracle
she can create bare-handed. This darkened room, her oceaned breath
waves of movement through her into me.
Me too, I want to say,
I’ve been lost in mine.
Kara Knickerbocker is the author of The Shedding Before the Swell (2018) and Next to Everything that is Breakable (2017). She currently lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she works at Carnegie Mellon University, writes with the Madwomen in the Attic at Carlow University, and co-curates the MadFridays Reading Series. Find her online at www.karaknickerbocker.com.
Emerge Literary Journal 