Studies in Loneliness, vii
We come to know who we are, says Emmanuel Levinas, by looking in another’s face.
--
When I teach, I seem to let all twelve hearts beat inside my own. No wonder it’s
both an opiate and a weight.
Does a heart adjust to other hearts in the room, the way our periods synchronize,
the way I hold my head mirroring yours? Whoever you are.
--
Helen says a difference in expectation applies to every sexual encounter. It wasn’t
so long ago that I spent the winter reading Apollinaire’s letters waiting for a man
who seemed to say it was over simply by removing one of the many hairs that cling
to whatever I wear.
--
Someone is shuffling through me, moving the hanger along to look at the other
blouses and sweaters, and sometimes the clock starts beating inside my heart, and
then there’s even more noise, mortal noise.
From Solutions for the Problem of Bodies in Space (Graywolf Press, 2024). Copyright © 2024 Catherine Barnett. Used with the permission of the Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of Graywolf Press.
Catherine Barnett
Catherine Barnett is the author of the collections Solutions for the Problem of Bodies in Space (Graywolf Press, 2024); Human Hours (Graywolf Press, 2018); The Game of Boxes (Graywolf Press, 2012), which was the recipient of the 2012 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets; and Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced (Alice James Books, 2004).