Lady’s Slipper

fishmanLadysSlipper1.jpg

If there were a creator 

of the universe, and if she 

were to begin again, 

having deemed the first draft,

if not a failure,

then in need of serious revision—

after light cracked its shell 

open against the sky, 

water trickled 

then cascaded 

from every promontory, 

air breezed over forest tops

and oceans—when she got down

to the minutiae—

and the architecture 

of a new being

and new knowledge—

there would be many do-overs—

the apple’s reputation 

resurrected apart from the snake— 

and many successes to repeat

in nature, and above all,

she would know the Lady’s Slipper

to be among her most perfect designs 

and from its pale pink

swelling sides, 

as they curve inward 

on their veined way 

toward a secret center,

she would know it to be

the template 

for that part 

of a woman’s body

in which coexist her pleasure

and her pain.

fishmanLadysSlipper2.jpg

Nadell Fishman’s MFA is so ancient it’s written on parchment. She taught writing, literature and women’s studies at Vermont College for 20 years. Read more.


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Psalm XXXI