day FORTY SIX

The Penis

Because it slips itself

into the pink silk purse

between our thighs,

because it protrudes

into the world

assuming a place

will be ready,

the penis is accustomed

to expanding

into space.

The penis determines

how men sit:

arms extending across

the back of the couch,

legs spread in an open V.

Because of the penis, men

slip what they won’t carry

into our bags:

checkbook, wallet, keys.

We accommodate,

carry big purses

that grow heavy

with a colony of things.

But, it’s the other penis

that’s powerful.

It’s the size of an arm,

grows from the forehead,

keeps the world back,

becomes the pen,

becomes the microphone,

becomes the mouth that shouts,

“Listen up,

my ideas are seminal.”

         --Donna Hilbert

Bio
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is The Congress of Luminous Bodies, from Aortic Books. The Green Season, World Parade Books, a collection of poetry and prose, is available in an expanded second edition. Earlier books include Transforming Matter, and Traveler in Paradise: New and Selected Poems, both from PEARL Editions. Her work is widely anthologized, including Boomer Girls, A New Geography of Poets, Solace in So Many Words, and recently in The Widows’ Handbook, Kent State University Press and The Doll Collection, Terrapin Books. Poems appear each month in the on-line literary magazine Verse-Virtual.com. More at www.donnahilbert.com

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