Origami

we do not need them now
these wombs that hide
behind our bellies
tulip shaped and still
waiting fruitlessly

if the maker was a woman
wouldn’t she have
a better design–
sitting quietly one day
in the garden
at the desk
in the lunchroom at the factory
each of us would feel its prick–
an economic folding up
inside us
meticulous turn and pleat
to nest there
exquisite
bird of passage

Elaine Handley has published in a variety of magazines and anthologies. She is a three time winner, with writing partners Marilyn McCabe and Mary Sanders Shartle, of the Adirondack Center for Writing’s Best Poetry Book Award. Their latest book of poems, Tear of the Clouds, was released by Ra Press. Handley’s most recent poetry chapbook is Letters to My Migraine, and she is completing a novel, Deep River, about the Underground Railroad in Upstate New York.