James Ducan

Questions for My Body

which organs settle
into grass,

adore the sky.
you can decide how

many hands are too
much touch.

can you feel the itch
of the scar under the tattoo.

if the air does not
hold you, when.

what do you need.
where should we keep the pain.

whose body, whose shards.
what do you want to say.

is there an opening to hold
the tree on your shoulder.

James Ducat’s poetry has appeared in Carve, Bellingham Review, CutBank, Apogee, Spoon River Poetry Review, has been featured on Verse Daily, and is anthologized by The Inflectionist Review, Orangelandia and others. His chapbook A Field of Nopes is from Bamboo Dart Press. James holds an MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles and is associate professor of English and creative writing at Riverside City College, where he advises the literary journal MUSE.