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Frida Kahlo’s Leg


03.21.19 Posted in today's words by

Julieta Corpus’ most recent poem to appear here was “O’Keeffe: Intimacies of the Heart” (July 2016)

Frida Kahlo’s Leg
By Julieta Corpus

Loving hands submerge me
Into a small tub filled
With warm, walnut water.

Her mother’s home remedy
For polio, a temporary salve
Staving off flesh pried open
To reveal a fiery canal
Of molten lava.

Only six years old, and I have
Already betrayed her. Forty-one
Years later, I will do it again.
They will
amputate
Mutilate
Separate

Me from the rest of her body.

Pies, para qué los quiero si tengo
Alas para volar?



3 Responses to “Frida Kahlo’s Leg”

  1. Sharon Poch says:

    Have always been fascinated by Frida Kahlo–as I am by your poem. She would have approved.

    • Julie Corpus says:

      Thank yoymu! She has fascinated ne for years—I even have a 4 foot ceramic Catrina of her, complete with a colorful bird on one shoulder and a monkey on the other!

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