Woman -- A Terza Rima by Janan Platt
published in Volume 2, Issue 5 on November 8th, 1995

Listen to Janan Platt read her poem, Woman -- A Terza Rima

At the club with pool and courts,
sweating on the gray carpet,
the copper woman in bike shorts,

busy like a sprocket, fit,
well not quite. When her head
weakens, her thighs remit.

Knees, a heart shape desired.
My mind reviews womanhood.
Her small muscles curved

and whittled like rosewood.
And I see her on the mat -
when I took dance I could

make ropey triceps like that.
A few wrinkles lined her skin
that was otherwise flat.

But her curves showed their sin
each muscle dipping under,
enough to hold a man's grin.

Each shape a spiral, going lower,
contour draped in worth.
And I felt this image's power

deep as seawater and birth;
how her movement pulls as yet
from a force outside the earth.

Distanced, she wasn't a threat,
a faceless icon. The men's
hot eyes loosened her step.

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