Kintsugi after Ocean Vuong

Someday I’ll love the cracks I’ve collected, my skin scarred
from a panoply of pins, plates, a cadaver’s bone, grafted.
I’ll fill the crevices with gold and silver, left from my
body’s reaction to what’s buried under my once-smooth
limb. I’ll run my fingers over my pebbly scars, imagining
the surgeon’s hand winding through a mass of nerves and
muscles. After, I’ll pull my top over my head and lie in the
sun. My body will gleam, a shattered porcelain painted
with platinum dust--broken then unbroken, shards then whole.
Linda, Linda, get up. The most beautiful part of your body is where it’s headed.

Universe Cento

Tonight, because all matter is dissolving,

you & I are gradually being undressed by the universe.

Sky-lashed clouds, watery rage ready for release,

the wind in the forest, yet to come. We know it can’t last—

though we see the sky bestrewn with stars and planets.

& the stars tear through the blue nights untraceable.

It’s a kind of truth of blue, that uncovers, that remembers,

burns through the words that no one has believed

Cento poem sources in order (including title) are from works by: Lucille Clifton, Terry Lucas, Patricia Spears Jones, Jan Wagner, Kimiko Hahn, Leslie Harrison, John Gallaher, W.S. Merwin

Linda Laderman is a Michigan poet. Her poetry has appeared numerous literary journals, including Gyroscope, SWWIM, ONE ART, Thimble Literary Magazine, The Scapegoat Review, Rust & Moth, Minyan Magazine, Quartet, and Mom Egg Review. Additional work is forthcoming in Sheil-Na-Gig and Action-Spectacle. She is the 2023 recipient of Harbor Review’s Jewish Women’s Prize and a Pushcart nominee. Find her at lindaladerman.com