Poetry: Nongestational by Jeni Prater
Constantly turning, this brief poem celebrates the fullness of desire between partners who are together in their disparate roles. “Nongestational” is a lesson in the power of each individual word to shape a poem, from the title to the final, solely punctuated “too.”
Nongestational
my body could
make a baby my body knows
what it wants shows your mouth unshy
under boxer briefs combing
through gristle to lush to mussel
to pearl I do not want anything
inside me still you tell me here
is where the world opens, too
Jeni Prater
Jeni Prater (she/they) is published or forthcoming in Apogee Journal, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Hooligan Mag, Wax Poetry: 45 Poems of Protest, and elsewhere, and was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize at Wellesley College. Their poems explore queer joy and nonbinary parenthood. She is an MFA candidate at Randolph College and was Accessibility Coordinator for Feminine Empowerment Movement Slam. Jeni lives in Northampton, Massachusetts with their wife.
