Body Language

WINNER!

Best Essay Prize

M.G. LEIBOWITZ lives in New York, New York. Her poetry has recently appeared in Boxcar Poetry Review, Crab Creek Review, Foundry, and The Journal. She is the recipient of CALYX Journal’s 2016 Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize, the 2018 Geballe Prize for Writing, and the 2018 Urmy/Hardy Poetry Prize.

I.

Tell me what you want. Tell me what feels good.

I press my face against his shoulder and go very still. I know what I want, but even in my head, the words don’t form, don’t gather as they usually do—ripely, readily.

I open my mouth. Close it. Say, I—

He strokes my back, gently.

I—

I close my mouth and lean back on the bed. I am quiet.

He touches my cheek, eyes searching. He bends over