exploring the heart with clinical precision
By Alexis Rhodes
how much of your heart will you let me hold?
the left ventricle? a
vein in the right leg, the one you broke in
middle school on the monkey bars?
may i army-crawl a circle
back to the beating center?
can i climb inside your
aorta
surf your blood to the silence
in between pulses?
ride the vessels to your
mind and find the thoughts
you’re most afraid to share?
won’t be biased, just a passenger.
won’t pass judgment on the
darkest crevices of your soul.
give me a clue where to search
for all the things that haunt you.
allow me to
climb inside your body and
explore the tricuspid valve
find the smallest tear.
bring my needle and thread
—stitch it so fine, no scars will show.
trace my fingers gently against
where your septum splits your heart in two.
who else did that to you, my love?
who else does that to you?
i will tiptoe against your capillaries
exploring the tiniest of links, kinks
kiss your eyes and
run my hands across the inside of your wrists.
see inside the blue-green veins
of that instrumental work of art
hold you in my arms as i dance through yours.
fold into your rhythm and know i
won’t tell a soul.
Alexis Rhodes (she/her) is a queer, polyamorous poet, playwright, performer, and strategist based in North Carolina. Her poetry has been described as raw and confessional, with just enough humor to lighten the mood. Alexis has been published with Drip Lit Magazine, Orange Rose Literary Magazine, The Words Faire, Blood+Honey, and Wayfarer Magazine, and has forthcoming publications with Action,Spectacle, Writers Resist, Moon Tide Press, Ghost Light Lit, Phylum Press, and Half and One. She has completed five anthologies: Notes on a Narcissist, LONGING, Goddess, Spiked Crowns, and lex, your poetry’s grotesque and is submitting to presses. Alexis lives with her husband, two kids, and a hedgehog named Hedge. Instagram: @alexis_writes_things
