Lucy Western

Rara Orbis

Let hips be hips
and let hips be anchors
and let anchors
be anchors

Let this be as
an ocean: sweet pulp
pooling around ribcage
striated stratum of flesh

Not that it can be helped

Not that I want it to

Back when the world
made maps without explorers—that
was a better place

Then let skin be
the cartography of oceans
never without four dimensions
strange unforgiving silo of song

Lucy Western is a middle school Latin teacher in Charlottesville, Virginia and has previously published work in New York Quarterly and 3rd Wednesday.