Lobe
By Atsuro Riley
The coarse croker-sack cloth
she’d grown to clutch
mesh-merged with her
woof and pang
rose to serve
more like organ
than protection
Notes:
This is the first published version of the poem, as it appeared in Poetry magazine in 2017. The poem has since been significantly revised; the revised definitive version can be found in Atsuro Riley's collection Heard-Hoard (2021).
Source: Poetry (September 2017)