Caroline Parkman Barr is a North Alabama native and a graduate of the MFA Writing Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she served as Poetry Editor of The Greensboro Review. Her poetry has appeared in Harbor Review, Sinking City, and Two Hawks Quarterly. She is the Social Media Specialist for Poetry Northwest and lives in Oakland, CA. ---------
Venus de Milo with Drawers Has Never Been in Love
Every night I have to release the bees
from my ribcage or else their hot-humming
burrows bone-through. Each one a new
hello, a get home safe, let me look at you,
why are you so late, I could have loved
you, maybe—each stir nectar-sweet, sting-
bitter, and urgent rattling my hipbones
knob-loose, shaking me awake to say: pay
attention, you did this. And I miss them
when they’re quiet, know they’ve fallen
still by lip and hand and warm sleep. Morning,
and I scoop the honey from beside my heart.