Photo by James Lee
Nymph (n):
Classical mythology.A semi-divine spirit, imagined as taking the form of a maiden inhabiting various natural dwellings, and often portrayed as attendants on a particular god.
She lands on anything that holds her weight;
a warm patch of grass
lit by a graciously sweaty sun,
the blanket of a stranger, patted down
in the curve left by former flames,
a devilish heat that sings “you are welcome here.”
euphemisticand humorous. A prostitute; a woman regarded as a means of sexual gratification.
She rests her legs in the palm–
of some shaded tree, hollowed
at the base from last winter’s rot,
of some hard-knuckled hands
calloused and torn at the fingertips,
begging to hold the fragile bones.
Zoology. An insect larva; specifically, the larva of a hemimetabolous insect, frequently resembling the adult in form though sexually immature.
She pauses on the most fleeting fantasies;
yellowed skies speckled through
green overgrowth at the height of spring,
a lover’s gaze that does not entomb
but instead watches as she moves;
a force that is not monopolized, but embraced.
The Author
Alexandra Englehart is a first-year MFA in Poetry at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Hailing from Richmond,Virginia, she received her B.A. in English with a Creative Writing Minor from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2019. She has had poems featured in the VCU online journal Poictesme (pwa-tem) and online magazine Persephone's Daughters. Aside from poetry she also has an interest in film studies as well as gender and sexuality. Her current work is focused on the body and its relationships with trauma, sexuality, the handling and placement of bodies, bones, and life structures through a multitude of visual expressions and explorations of “flight”.
Alexandra Englehart, Knoxville, TN