Openwork
(1598): work constructed so as to show
openings through its substance: work
that is perforated or pierced
I want to write poems
you can see through.
I want you to see
my skin through
the openings.
I want you to see
through the openings
in my skin,
through the open
pores of bone
and atom, piercing
all the way through
to the other side,
the open air
sequined with mirrors
like Bengali cloth,
fragments
of your own face
everywhere you turn.
– gayle brandeis
"Openwork" first appeared in Gayle Brandeis' Dictionary Poems, from Pudding House Press.