Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Prayer to an Anatomical Venus” by Courtney Bates-Hardy.

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Prayer to an Anatomical Venus

By Courtney Bates-Hardy

“I need to love this self in pain…”

–Sonya Huber

If I have to suffer,

let me be beautiful

while I writhe.

If I have to be in pain,

let me have pleasure

in equal parts.

Let this pain pass quickly

and give way to a day

I might enjoy.

Let me have pain now

but not later, not

when I am with her.

If I take this pill now,

will it satisfy the flame?

Should I take it now or later

or again? Did I take it

before or again or not at all?

If I sit another way

or stretch this muscle or that

or stand and walk a while

can I continue writing this poem?

I am tired of writing

my body. Another line

will not quench this fire.

I’d like to write about

the sweetness of her mouth

but I don’t yet know

whether she’ll taste

like an apple or a peach.

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Copyright © Courtney Bates-Hardy

Previously published Anatomical Venus, Radiant Press, 2024.

Courtney Bates-Hardy is the author of Anatomical Venus (Radiant Press, 2024), House of Mystery (ChiZine Publications, 2016), and a chapbook, Sea Foam (JackPine Press, 2013). Her poems have appeared in Event, Vallum, Room, PRISM, and the Canadian Medical Association Journal, among others. She has been included in The Best Canadian Poetry 2021 and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She is queer and disabled, and one third of a writing group called The Pain Poets.

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