This selection, chosen by guest editor Layla Lenhardt, is from In the Cosmic Fugue by Jocelyn Heath (Kelsay Books 2022).
Clippings
Up, up above, the ecstatic swirl of wasps.
Belly, thighs, hips, the spaces between.
I measure myself with fingers:
a hurt necessary as the gravel in my back.
Unfold the topography of a woman:
cleft of freckled breast,
cinch of silk at the waist—
photos glisten from sun silvering the hedge
where I hide. Through the summer,
the globed nest swells.
Jocelyn Heath is an Associate Professor in English at Norfolk State University. Her first poetry collection, In the Cosmic Fugue, came out in November 2022. Other creative writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Crab Orchard Review, Poet Lore, Sinister Wisdom, Flyway, and Fourth River. She is an Assistant Editor for Smartish Pace.
Layla Lenhardt (she/they) is an American poet. She is founder and Editor-in-Chief of the (currently on hiatus) national literary journal 1932 Quarterly. Her essays, poems, short prose, and interviews have been published across various types of media, including a pickle jar, a post card, and a bathroom stall in Dublin. She is a 2021 Best of the Net Nominee and was a judge for Poetry Super Highway’s Annual Contest in 2022. Her first full-length poetry collection, Mother Tongue, was published by Main Street Rag Publications (2023). She is a 2022 alumna of the SAFTA residency. 
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