Luci Arbus-Scandiffio

one poem

Self Portrait Beginning with Yeats

A shape with lion body and the head of a man
And also, the mind of a woman and fingers made from fire
And the nose of a spider and the mouth of a pigeon
And the trill of a garden snake and the neck of a hound
And a face like a leopard’s with the suit of a squirrel
O I pant like a dog and I walk like a pig
I have the belly of a beast
My shape knows the fog
So I fold into the sky
I am always hungry, always late
I have the eyes of my mothers
The heart of a spy

Luciana Arbus-Scandiffio is a poet at UT Austin’s Michener Center for Writers. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Gulf Coast, Bennington Review, Southern Indiana Review, Peripheries, and NECK. In 2018, she received an Academy of American Poets prize (selected by Dorothea Lasky). Luci has two lesbian moms, and is originally from New Jersey.