Letter from My Heart to My Vagina

Abstract

Letter from My Heart to My Vagina Jessica Lee (bio) after Rachel McKibbens' "letter from my heart to my brain" It's okay to not know how to love yourself,to buy expensive, toxin-free toys shaped like liliesand rabbits on credit to help you practice. And yes, it's good to talk about yourself,speak candidly, depart from metaphor.I know you are not a peach or poppy, a Venusfly trap or anything else that needs pollinating. It's good to say what you want,to declare your hungers and preferences—softer eggs, more Hollandaise,on your knees, against the counter. It's okay that sometimes, in the middle of a great fuck,you think about your mother,or the time she was raped,or the times you were. I know you sometimes feel like krill inside a whale's mouth. Remember: you are not where your thoughts take you. Still, it's okay to want out of your bodyand the memories that do and do not belong to you,which, like café receipts, are stored together,stabbed through on the one brass check spindle. You do not need to explain yourself. [End Page 269] Remember: you can always close early,force the customer enjoying his slice of cherry pie out,flip your Open sign, turn off all the lightsand lock the place up, walk away and let whateverdesserts are left in the display case dry outin your absence. [End Page 270] Jessica Lee Jessica Lee's poems have been published in the New Yorker, American Poetry Review, Missouri Review, and Poetry Northwest, among other journals. In 2020 she was a finalist for Narrative Magazine's Poetry Contest. Find her online at readjessicalee.com. Copyright © 2022-2023 Pleiades and Pleiades Press