I keep my heart in the knee-
-creases of my knickers, down

where it can be seen, touched,
taken. The women folk say, close

your legs, wear your skirt long
below your ankles, keep your secrets

hidden. I’m a good girl, I do what
I’m told, but I drift, hover when

I see her. The nuns notice first
how I lift skirt to wrinkled bloomer,

show her my knees, my heart pendant
fastened, a golden buckle. They tap

my thigh hard, plop a bible in the dip
of my lap, point to verse; reach

for my levitating legs, pull me
back to ground.

Hope D. Johnson

Hope D. Johnson was born in Lexington KY where she often dreamed of flying to far away places. Johnson graduated from the University of Kentucky and is a current MFA student at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. She is a Callaloo fellow and among many, has been published in Pluck! Journal, So to Speak, Kweli Journal, and the Bicycle Review. Johnson was recently accepted as summer graduate student instructor with Cross Cultural Collaborative Inc., a school for creative arts in Nungua, Ghana.

Art:  C. Cole Phllips, Holeproof Hosiery Company Ad, 1922

24 Aug This entry was published on August 24, 2013 at 12:00 am and is filed under 2 (August 2013), Archive, Poetry. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.