Part & Parcel
       

It was all a part of the posing, part
of the parsing, parts of speech bound and metered.
I tried on form to see which feet are featured,
the figure the poem made. It's the sort
of play you don't want others to suspect:
I hid my sonnets like they were naughty pictures,
denied my love of rhyme and rhythm's strictures.
Those prim ones are the last that you'd expect,
but believe me — this bondage is self-prescribed.
I prefer restriction in my diction,
meter's mastery, the subtle friction
of stress at work, the language modified.
You would not imagine how straight-laced
I am, inside my bedroom, verse encased.

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Copyright © 2014 Heidi Czerwiec All rights reserved
from Self-Portrait as Bettie Page
Barefoot Muse Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission