The Poet Has No Nose

for dorothy porter

the poet
  has no nose.
  
the microphone
  obscures
  the centre of her face.
  
the rhythm
  of the words
  renders incidental
  the gap in her teeth
  the way her hair wisps
  at a hand dragged through.
  
that the poet
  has no nose
  is incidental.
 
 she has a voice.


February 11, 1999
© Lela Kaunitz