Heart, 2014
Sally Bliumis-Dunn, American
She has painted her lips
hibiscus pink.
The upper lip dips
perfectly in the center
like a Valentine heart.
It makes sense to me—
that the lips, the open
Marilyn, 1967, screenprint. Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, DC
ah of the mouth
is shaped more like a heart
than the actual human heart.
I remember the first time I saw it—
veined and shiny
as the ooze of a snail—
if this were what
we had been taught to draw
how differently we might have
learned to love.