Subjacency
(linguistics) A constraint on the movement of elements which states that the target position of movement must be structurally close downwards to the source position. –Wiktionary
… lying immediately under or below. –Merriam-Webster
the incomparable syntax
of the knee
the half-familiar language
of the hands
the mouth’s vague
symmetry
we spoke
a new and common tongue
when you said “this
is the finest form of communication”
in the final light
every touch was a guess
eyes closed, locating
the wrist’s yoked bones
the shelf of the hip
the nameless ribs
the sun unwound
uncertainly from wall to wall
as we traveled
from accident to purpose
the room took on
that forsythia-yellow light
knee, hand, mouth: the three ways
I began to know you
Jennifer Isaacs graduated at nineteen from Johns Hopkins University with a B.A. in poetry. While raising three daughters she founded and directed several nonprofits, including a Montessori school and an immigrant rights organization serving undocumented community members threatened with detention and deportation. Now (mercifully) retired, she lives with her husband of thirty-five years just down the street from her parents, on a creek off the Chesapeake Bay.
