Joy | Samantha Fain

—after Emily Dickinson

Joy: a limbless thing,
a flushed pink tube
that bristles & grows
symmetrical,
that wiggles rings
around your heart
& drums around,
but dim. & in the rain
joy arrives—jetsam
from dirt’s boat—
& flags like loose skin.
& beneath the knife
joy splits in half
but regenerates again.

Samantha Fain is an MFA candidate at Bowling Green State University. Her work has appeared in The Indianapolis Review, SWWIM, Utterance, and others. She tweets at @smnthfn.