P1 - Ruth Asawa, Untitled (S.304) 

Ruth Asawa
American, 1926-2013

Untitled (S.304)
1967
Naturally oxidized copper and brass wire
Gift of the Kathryn C. Wanlass Foundation
2004.13

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Woman
by Taylor Fang

I have a small heart
and two hearts to carry it within
a womb.
I have children
with spiral shells in their bones, children
who see the world slowly—
drifting
as if weightless.

At the surface
of my skin: lattice of stars.
And light.
My small heart
looks slowly
through dragonfly wings.
As if licking the honeyed rim
of a white plate,
or dipping bread
into a saucer of milk.

(My shadow and I
have the same
long legs, wide hips, narrow feet,
hair around our shoulders.
My shadow watches me
suspended, open—one lantern
swimming in the clear air,
pulling my toes
through soil.)

Woven mesh of my hair.
Sagebrush baskets
and spider webs in the early morning,
multiplying
in spiral patterns.
I envelop myself, time
repeating
again and again.
Woman. Small heart:
enough for the sky,
the clouds, the earth.
I trap the bright bronze
my small heart sings,
the ripples
that radiate outward.