Sonnenizio on a Line from Drayton

American Poetry Review, The, May/Jun 2001 by Addonizio, Kim

Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part; or kiss anyway, let's start with that, with the kissing part, because it's better than the parting part, isn't it-- we're good at kissing, we like how that part goes: we part our lips, our mouths get near and nearer, then we're close, my breasts, your chest, our bodies partway to making love, so we might as well, part of me thinks-- the wrong part, I know, the bad part, but still let's pretend we're at that party where we met and scandalized everyone, remember that part? Hold me like that again, unbutton my shirt, part of you wants to I can tell, I'm touching that part and it says yes, the ardent partisan, let it win you over, it's hopeless, come, we'll kiss and part forever.

NOTE

The sonnenizio is a form invented by the author. The rules for the form are these: begin with a line from someone else's sonnet; repeat a word from that line in each succeeding line of the poem. The sonnenizio is 14 lines long and ends with a closing couplet.

KIM ADDONIZIO'S new collection is Tell Me (BOA Editions). She recently joined the faculty of Goddard College's low-residency MFA program.