Sara Pirkle Hughes

How Quickly the Body Forgives 

Biking too fast to make a sharp turn,
I scrape against a raw pine fence,
and because teenagers are goofing nearby,
I keep riding, my shin erupting
in red splinters of blood, but the wind
cools my face, the throbbing subsides,
white lilac bursts in constellations
overhead, and I am daydreaming
of my secret life again, how graceful
I am in that life, how desirable, how me.

Sara Pirkle Hughes is a Southern poet, an identical twin, a breast cancer survivor, and a university instructor.http://www.saraphughes.com/