trace tendons, thread
red yarn, stitch piece
by piece, bit by bit,
vein by vein, poke
tendrils, stick needles
in freckles, moles.
Tears everywhere,
shredded skin translucent,
brown-gray gristle, fat
tender fissures. I suture blue
riven seams, like quartz strips
across lungs, breasts, thighs.
Each morning I string
this body bag of blood, meat
and memories, a bit of heat,
a lot of smoke, some twine
for the sagging, the aching.
I sew, cut, crimp and curl
edges, bends, detours
stretchmark river down
my legs, lake scars hidden
along my right ankle,
striations blooming thick
across my stomach,
a forest bending into
itself like lichen stars.
Every day at the center,
my heart, cave of iron
cave of cells and song.
M. Soledad Caballero is a Macondo, CantoMundo, and StoryKnife fellow. Her collection, I Was a Bell won the 2019 Benjamin Saltman poetry prize, was the 2022 International Association of Autoethnography and Narrative Inquiry book of the year, and a 2022 International Latino Book Award winner. Flight Plan, published in September 2025 was long-listed for the Julie Suk prize. Her work has been nominated for several Pushcart prizes and has appeared in Missouri Review, Iron Horse Review, Ninth Letter, and other venues. She’s an avid tv watcher, a terrible birder, and teaches at Allegheny College.
This poem was commissioned by BalletCollective for their 2026 season. The performances premiered in November of 2026.
