Joanna’s poem is a perfectly formed four-line stanza, full of painful memories expressed with the skilled storytelling Joanna’s work is known to bring. An addictive read, it’s a poem that fills the reader with fractures of memories that come together to create a beautiful and profound poem. We hope in sharing this poem you can return to it time and again to experience the various emotions it shelters within the lines.

 

Perfect Happiness/Joanna Nissel

I had eight teeth out when I was two years old- I lost them in a fight with the
bathtub. I remember fingering the five keys above middle C and wondering if
that was what having teeth felt like. Five white soldiers perfectly aligned.
The Von Trapps tap tapping along to Lavender’s Blue.