Poetry

Private Rituals

by  Shauna Osborn
Female silhouette, outside in mountain pose.
Photo: Mark Brodie/Pixabay

between landscape and the female body:
earth   sand   stones   plants   flowers   blood

a silhouette 

digging 
molding 
carving 
space 

visible & tactile 

between the body and the land:
one obsessive act

female force 
after-image
within the womb

optical indexes 
memory-traces
ancient stone circles 
individual desires

splendid imperative
like Cézanne’s apples – 
satisfied not static

subjective earth
what desire


Shauna Osborn is an award-winning Numunuu (Comanche) / German mestiza artist, researcher, and wordsmith. Her debut poetry collection is called Arachnid Verve. She was recently named national director of the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas. You can find her online at shaunamosborn.wordpress.com.

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