Susanna Herrmann, Green Glass
Valentine
HFR Inaugural Poetry Contest Winner
The heart shape did not start with the heart,
but peepal leaves, Silphium, wild carrot—the rounded plants
ancient women found to prevent or end pregnancy. See
also: ivy, fig leaves, damp petals of the water-lily. It’s not until
crucifixion we get the bloody organ, pierced by a black cross,
a clutched chest the true symbol of devotion, then Luther’s Rose,
Danish ballad books, winks at the shape of buttocks
when viewed from behind, private schools with demanding names
like Sacred or Immaculate Heart, a box heavy with chocolates
and rimmed in velvet, children folding red paper in half
with clumsy hands, I Heart NY, i carry your heart with me,
(Everybody Has a) Hungry Heart, <3, aisles in the drugstore so red
you’d think they were bleeding, which is all ancient women
hoped for each month, not just February, gifting each other
Silphium, wild carrot, leaves like paper hearts, what clearer way
to say I love you, I love you, I want you to live.
JESS SMITH’s work can be found or is forthcoming in Cincinnati Review, Prairie Schooner, Southern Indiana Review, The Rumpus, and other journals. She is the recipient of support from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the Vermont Studio Center, and is currently an assistant professor of practice at Texas Tech University.