ALEXANDRIA QUARTERLY

EMERGING ARTISTS & WRITERS: REUBEN GELLEY NEWMAN

REUBEN GELLEY NEWMAN

SHAVASANA

Lying like a lost man
dead, inert
from strain and tough
motion of the day,
I flitter through my body,
not quite in corpse pose,
its rest a dreaming
not of this dimension:
legs crossed above,
supported, shoulders
tucked neat
under the arch
of my back, open
to everything,
open to fear,
to pain,
to love,

not hearing:
eardrums withdrawn,
eyelids shut immobile,
tongue a thick slab
of muscle serving
no purpose and jaw
heavy, all slack.
Waves of awareness
coursing through
the empty space
in the hollow of my ears,
the smooth stretch
of my thighs.

And somehow tears
float to my eyes.
Halfway, in the thick
of my childhood, I come out
of this calibrated
composition,
resurrect
my beautiful body
into the real world.

Reuben Gelley Newman is a 17 year old writer from Brooklyn, NY. His poem "Mermen" was part of a special Valentine's Day issue of Alexandria Quarterly.