• Skip to content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Painted Bride Quarterly

  • About
    • About PBQ
    • People
  • Issues
    • Current Issue
    • Past Issues
    • Print Annuals
  • Podcast
    • Latest Podcast
    • All Podcasts
  • News & Events
  • Submit
  • Shop
  • Fiction
  • Poetry
  • Prose
  • Contributors
  • Current Issue

Sarah St. Vincent: For a sparring partner

March 8, 2022 by PBQ Leave a Comment

Here is the dance
of things I should have done,

the rehearsal that comes
when the show has already
left town.

My hands at your throat, 
your fingers wrapped around
my hip joint

like a lover
but less
dangerous.

I will make you my instrument.

Your body will sing 
with pain
and I will study
that songbook,
listen for the sounds
I have known and been,
never again to be tongueless
with my mouth in a helpless

O.

I will see the blows coming
and I will win.

We will perform, 
show our strength,
      sparring,

moving across a stage
on which you are the only 
actor, unwitting stand-in
for a giftless clown

and I will love you for that innocence
even as I bruise us
to the bone

Filed Under: Issue 101, Poetry 101 Tagged With: Sarah St. Vincent

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Recent News & Events

PBQ @ AWP!

PBQ Poet’s Publishing Premier: Carlos Andrés Gómez’s Fractures

Issue 100 Has Arrived!

Temporarily Closing Submissions

PBQ presents: Slam Bam Reboot

© 2020 Painted Bride Quarterly. Contact PBQ: info@pbqmag.org