Theresa Senato Edwards

How He Understands Motion

Winter again, lack of sunlight on an empty blanket.
Your husband’s hunger underground. It never stops

waiting, searches for your smooth edge, outer layers
like prayers he details fervently although he’s not

a praying man. Sometimes you return to the paneled
railroad flat, fear of the ex-husband. Your body

a trigger attached to a rifle’s barrel: bent, boned metal
weary enough to break bones. Your husband accepts

the earth’s pull, helps you appreciate the motion of a
porch swing, knows when to stop it from moving.

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Theresa Senato Edwards has published two full-length poetry books, one, with painter Lori Schreiner, which won The Tacenda Literary Award for Best Book, and two chapbooks. Her first chapbook, The Music of Hands, was published in a revised second print edition by Seven CirclePress. Poems from her newest manuscript entitled Fragments of Wing Bones can be found in Stirring, Gargoyle, The Nervous Breakdown, Thrush, Diode, Rogue Agent, Mom Egg Review, Menacing Hedge, Moria, Harbor Review, Matter Press’ Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, 3Elements Review, Dialogist, SWWIM and Whale Road Review. Edwards was nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize, received creative writing residencies from Drop Forge & Tool and Craigardan, and is a poetry editor for American Poetry Journal. Her website: Theresa Senato Edwards New York Poet & Editor.