JESSICA GOODFELLOW

Body Dysmorphia Cento

The vertebrae are a ladder of moonlight.                               
The dark apart from the body                                                            
is an impossibility that has its uses—                                                
uses; uses instead of feelings.                                                            
Here is a doll made from pieces. The pieces hate one another.        
 
 
Sources: William Olsen, Alison Titus, Vijay Seshadri, Dan Chiasson, William Dickey

Jessica Goodfellow’s books are Whiteout (University of Alaska Press, 2017), Mendeleev’s Mandala (2015) and The Insomniac’s Weather Report (2014). Her work has appeared in Verse Daily, Motionpoems, and The Writer’s Almanac. She was awarded the Chad Walsh Poetry Prize from the Beloit Poetry Journal, and has been a writer-in-residence at Denali National Park and Preserve. Recently her poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from Threepenny Review, The Cortland Review, The Southern Review, and Best American Poetry 2018. Jessica lives in Japan.