Poem-A-Day: Love Letter to a Stranger by Jenny Browne

October 9, 2013 Love Letter to a Stranger by Jenny Browne     Tell us of a bypassed heart beating in 12C, how the woman holds a stranger's hand  to the battery sewn in beneath her collarbone, and says feel this. Tell us of the man's ear listening across the aisle, hugging itself, a fist long since blistered by blaze. Outside, morning sun buckling up. Inside, twitching bonesacks of bat, birdsong erupting as light cracks the far jungle canopy. Ten thousand feet below ours, a grey cat tongues the morning's butter left out to soft. Last night we broke open the sweet folds around two paper fortunes. One said variety. One said caution. The woman in 12C would hold that her heart needs its hidden spark, but the man shows how some live the rest of their lives with half a face remembering its before expression. Who was it that said our souls know one another by smell, like horses?         Copyright © 2013 by Jenny Browne. Used with permission of the author.   About This Poem "Whenever I struggle to feel connected to the other human travelers that share this planet, it helps to remember that we all get to (have to) live inside these variously broken (beautiful) bodies. Whatever I pretend to understand about intimacy and distance (and about poetry) starts there."    --Jenny Browne Most Recent Book by Browne Dear Stranger (University of Tampa Press, 2013)   Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day Archive.   Jenny Browne is the author of three books of poetry, including Dear Stranger (University of Tampa Press, 2013). She teaches at Trinity University and lives in San Antonio, Texas. Related Poems Bodyweight by Matthew Schwartz Self-Portrait in a Wire Jacket by Monica Youn Anatomy by Monica Ferrell __________________________ Love reading Poem-A-Day? Help support it today.     Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.

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