Forehead

Abstract

Foreheadafter Andrés Montoya Sheryl Luna (bio) I too am a Romanticdespite it being uncool.I too have a scar,but mine cascades acrossmy brow unevenly. The mysteryof the single line shocked mewhen I fell hard onto tile as a child—hematoma, tumor. Your foreheada great wall of song. My scara third eye, yours a valleywhere eyebrows wept at its feet.There were days the sorrowof my own scar sunk into a frown.I imagined the loss of my birth fatherthere in the falling, in the breaking.It was in the rolling music of losswhere I found the scar fading intoa lighter tone than the wall of my skin.It was as if it had freed itself in a quiet rest,a softening sound, healing from the rumblingwaves of myself. You, Andrés, said you hopedyour scar would produce a symphony of sighs.I would settle for the silences betweenwhat is beautiful, or the shy smiles betweenthe moan of violas. The point was, I think, [End Page 107] what is broken, heals. What is blooded, seals.Even the sky, when seemingly cracked and lit aflamecools itself with rain, and I go on too long, Andrés.I forget you and your late leukemia poems—where you were left to “study the poisoned bloodof [your] own heart,” seeking all the whilethe song of a single bird. You sang of a Godwho fell in love with your eyes, your hair,the blush of your cheeks, and I imagine,even your scar. [End Page 108] Sheryl Luna Sheryl Luna’s Magnificent Errors (University of Notre Dame Press) won the Ernest Sandeen Prize. Pity the Drowned Horses (University of Notre Dame Press) received the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. Seven (3: A Taos Press) was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. Copyright © 2022 The Trustees of Indiana University