local_library Soundtrack

by Christine M Du Bois

Published in Issue No. 288 ~ May, 2021

A soundtrack

in my head

reports my feelings

back to me and then

insists upon release;

a beast within my chest

claws inside—

heart-bent on bursting

through my fragile frame;

an energy so nuclear

so tiny, so intimate,

it’s too explosive,

to contain;

this, this is what I birth now

how I break now,

where I walk now;

this potency

I must obey,

I purposeful and powerless,

to stop this singing creature

demanding all to document

and decorate

and detonate—

this animal who animates

frenetically,

fastidiously, this

flash-creating ovum

this mystery, reveals herself

she names herself

she calls herself

“Poem.”

account_box More About

Dr. Christine M. Du Bois is a cultural anthropologist who has published three non-fiction books, most recently _The Story of Soy_ (Reaktion Press, 2018). She has had poems published at BourgeonOnline.com and the blog of Prospectus magazine, with others forthcoming at PonderSavant.com and in the CAW Anthology. She is also a precinct Judge of Elections near Philadelphia—where apparently bad things happen.