The Nervous System Speaks — Blackbird Archive

← v11n1, Spring 2012

They roll their eyes—I’m much too small

to be the feeler of all things: donkey fur

to heartburn, eiderdown to rising welts.

They lean too close; my ganglia tremble.

Cameras flash; I see a train light closing in.

Oh missing flare-gun of my heart!

Lost bandage of my skin!

body illness identity

Saara Myrene Raappana

Saara Myrene Raappana’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in 32 Poems , Subtropics , The Gettysburg Review , and Verse Daily . Her reviews have appeared in American Book Review and The Rumpus . She is an editor at Cellpoems , a poetry journal distributed via text message, which won a 2010 Innovations in Reading Prize from the National Book Foundation. She earned her MFA in poetry from the University of Florida. Photo by Eric Doise