Erin Bertram
At the groin of caryatid & telamon—a pair of bent figures, ligaments outstretched toward
one another, or away, with one final goal, to bolster, bring forth, to hold, flying buttresses
of more than arc, add style & scant dress, thighs bent & vibrantly flexed, only still, the
cornerstone held there, suspended like so many hearts, fair & flush alike, chambers all
eddy & wash, on the chronic move—Gender, of course, clothed in full, looks neither left
nor right, up nor down, back nor front. Its gaze head-on, vis à vis onlookers or any other
passersby who should eyes climb up & find there the eighth wonder of the pitied & pitied
sphere, Gender, that which dictates, that which deems, a forced double hand—a double-
handed force—capsized & overgrown, fashioned inherent, fatigued by the weight of its
own heft, contemplates daily its escape, as is apparent by its gaze, let finally & repeatedly
down.
Erin Bertram will begin study toward her MFA as a fellow at Washington University in St. Louis this fall
, where she will intern for River Styx. Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in AdmitTwo, Columbia Poetry Review, LOCUSPOINT, and TYPO.