Candice Wuehle

I’M TRYING MY HAND AT FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY

i stand in front of a tree and i pronounce
the alphabet as one word. i open my mouth
to take a photograph of the white birthday
candle tip burning at the back of my throat. Everything
i say is new
s. Let’s invite wolves
to this. Watch me lift the finger of one hand. No one else
knows how to draw the outline of the skeleton
on the baby limbs. Frames
become us all. Lift
a limp glove with a gloved hand
to estimate the importance of a body. Everything
i say is nude
propaganda, is spiritual inseam. Spit
ash. Pin the fur to the wall. Print
the pattern for fat. i expect you
to know i am alive. i expect you to
hold my heels as i hover.

CANDICE WUEHLE is the author of the full-length collection Bound  (Inside the Castle Press) and the chapbooks Vibe Check (Garden Door Press), curse words: a guide in 19 steps for aspiring transmographs (Dancing Girl Press) and Earth*Air*Fire*Water*Æther (Grey Books Press). She lives in Lawrence, Kansas, and teaches creative writing and composition at the University of Kansas.