Poem of the Month
July 2022
Teresa Tumminello Brader
(W)hole
Filling one of her orifices
with one part of his body
is no longer enough. He yearns to crawl inside her.
He wants to miniaturize his whole body, insert it
into a less obvious entry point—for instance, the fenestra of her ear— then slide down the walls of her capillaries
and swim in the bayous of her blood.
If she learns how to shrink before he does, he’ll put her in his pocket,
stroke the whole of her
with the pad of his thumb
all day long.
“(W)hole” by Teresa Tumminello Brader was originally published in MER 10 The Body Issue, 2012.
All MER 10 The Body Issue PDF sales proceeds through July 4, 2022 will benefit Planned Parenthood. The Body PDF $5
Teresa Tumminello Brader, mother of two, was born in New Orleans and lives in the area still. Her stories and poems appear in several journals, including Mused: BellaOnline Literary Review, Halfway Down the Stairs, Willows Wept Review, and The Body Electric from Ars Omnia Press.