Sage Cohen

GRANDE ODALISQUE

I give you my back of birds
drinking nectar from white

hibiscus cups. My gaze
three vertebrae beyond

truth. Muscles and bone
commissioned in an ecology

of repose. I give you
my velvet shadow reclined

in the shape absence
makes. Separation.

Purification. Reunification.
As art seeks immortality

I give you perspective
seven generations deep.

My back. Your gaze. Desire
a bird quenching reflection.

Petals full and empty
as breath, I give you

this blossom before
the bird. And after.