The Shape of Longing

artwork: ralph murre

The Shape of Longing 

by Jeanie Tomasko

it wants to be a bird with two wrong wings

it wants to be

     uneven, it yearns

to be hollow

a little place to put your wadded prayers

the shape of longing stops you

every time is something you know that you know

is gnarled and winter

                             and white as January

the shape of this is white

                              is the voice that comes

from your small right rib

from the place that makes the wind and salt

                              if there is

a place only light has been,

                              there

it is, returning to you

                              undiminished, overdue

it is not mendable, this, your almost,

your leaden, your irregular

rowboat, small skiff, bent wing

this, your perfect translation of homesickness, of swimming

                               under

your lonely, your only, your umbra

your longest scar, your certain,

your silent, your first

       frost

singular and sternal, it is

                               the shape

of all you asked for, you and your simple

                               mad, breathless heart

~ previously published in Sharp as Want (Little Eagle Press)