Phantom Nipple Burn

Melissa Joplin Higley

The window
of physical beauty

is small compared
to the human lifespan.

I remember, the body
knows how to die.

Everything
is like this now,

hoping, again,
for spring.

I chew on a dried apricot—
a small, flat sun.



Melissa Joplin Higley is the author of First Father (Bottlecap Press, 2023). Her poems appear or are forthcoming in B O D Y, Feral, Rise Up Review, Rogue Agent, Sleet Magazine, Whale Road Review, Writer’s Digest, and elsewhere. Melissa holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, co-facilitates the Poetry Craft Collective, co-edits book reviews for MER, and serves as the 2024-2026 Town of Mamaroneck Author Laureate. Visit her online: melissajoplinhigley.com.