Krista Franklin Gilds Ruth Ellen Kocher

Collage by Krista Frankin, after "G/gnosis II Discipline" by Ruth Ellen Kocher.

G/gnosis II Discipline
Ruth Ellen Kocher

That summer My body forgot hesitation
wandered mountains met boys

whose faces lost soft curves spirit edged
stubble Tumble into manhood I called to it

tried to become one with it but again The body
floated afternoons in birch creek pools cutoffs

soaked through legs learning skin and skin.
Mornings feet caked black with culm

the paths through waste-land woods
followed us back to the apartment My body

hid from its parents Forgot its sisters Bathed
each morning as though performing ritual

leaving My body knew before I knew
Soon like hesitation It would forget return.

KRISTA FRANKLIN is a poet and visual artist whose poetry and collages have been published most recently in Indiana Review, Ecotone, Clam, Callaloo, MiPOesias.com, CultureServe.net, and the anthology Gathering Ground. Her collages have been featured on the covers of award-winning books, and exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions. She is a Cave Canem Fellow, a co-founder of Tres Colony, an artist collective, and a co-founder of 2nd Sun Salon, a community meeting space for writers, visual and performance artists, musicians and scholars.