The Bamboo Wife by Leona Sevick [by Nin Andrews]

A few years ago, I discovered the poet, Leona Sevick’s first collection, Lion Brothers, when I was reading for the Virginia Festival of the Book. I was so impressed; I called the director of the festival to rave about the book. Now, her second collection, The Bamboo Wife, is coming out with Trio House Press in July. Again, I am smitten.  Sevick, to my mind, has a magical power—a way of weaving her cultural identity and everyday world into the mystical. Or maybe it's the other way around. I particularly admire her dark and sometimes witty insights into the female experience.

The Bamboo Wife

If one bright day you find yourself moving through
the rooms of the Jeju folklore museum,

you might pause at the domestic exhibits,
wonder at the strange, closed basket as wide as

a drum and as long as a yardstick. They call
it “bamboo wife,” and carefully printed signs

tell you that in warmer months, men would wrap their
arms and legs around her cage-body to sleep,

her ribs free from flesh, the air moving through her
to cool the sleeper. Perhaps you think this a

strange marriage: the wife stiff and silent, her spouse
breathing into her the stale air of sleep, arms

locked in a tight embrace around nothing. Where
has she gone, living wife? Out to the paddy

field in search of a soft breeze, the cold water
cupping her feet as she reaches for the sky.

Comments

[Margarita C.]

Unlike Jesus, I’m a vegan former art student turned tax lawyer. My friends tell me there is no oher woman in the country who is both vegan (or who will even tolerate dating a vegan) and voted for Trump. Help me prove them wrong! I, too, am entitled to love Nin Andrews.

[Charlotte Dickenson]

Who is she?

[Lisa Kraken]

Maybe not. Your political allegiance might Trump your right to love Nin. Unless of course Nin supports Trump, too. Then all bets are off. But we have the Australian ballot in this country, so we'll never know unless Nin comes clean. Meanwhile, what a talent scout! This is a terrific poem.

[Nin Andrews]

I am enormously grateful to all who read and comment on my posts—thank you so much!
As a guest-contributor on this wonderful blog, I have agreed not to participate in political dialog. That said, I suppose one might see this amazing poet/poem as having a political/feminist viewpoint. You can read more about her and more poems by her at Leonasevick.com

[Sarah Gelder]

". . .the stale air of sleep." Sad.

[Beth Tenny]

Who the kraken is this Homeric hymn or Hera from Australia?