Nan Cohen

THE WORD “I”

can’t see the blood
rising through the 
hollow needle
until it begins
to fill the tube,

nor can I see the air
becoming breath
as it’s drawn into
the lungs, inflating
around the heart,

or becoming
air again, 
unless I were 
to stand close
to a mirror 
seeing a soft cloud
form on the glass,

considering
this body, how
I might know
and not know
what it contains,

considering this word,
another container,
standing upright,
head open
to be filled.

Nan Cohen has published two books of poems: Rope Bridge (Cherry Grove, 2005) and Unfinished City (Gunpowder Press, 2017). She is the recipient of a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, and a Rona Jaffe Writer's Award. She lives in Los Angeles and is the poetry program director of the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference.