“There Is More Light Every Day (A Song for Uneven Fingernails)” by Anna Hundert
there is more light every day
and it is helping me to see
my edges, see where my body
ends and the world begins you
see, this separation (here I,
there world) is needed for the
infant mind to grow and I
am just learning
there is more light in
my eyes and on the ends of
my eyelashes on days like these
when I am glad to have edges
and I am glad to have them
broken only every so often
I ask for love or ask for
forgiveness or ask you
to make love to me, to break
my edges, I ask every now
and then
somebody breaks
my edges I have not asked, I
cannot say a thing, it is
strange to me (how odd, how
sinister) that another body
within my edges can make me
feel less whole, sometimes.
(you see, I cannot stop biting
my nails for this reason:
sometimes it helps to have
control over my own edges,
to show the world that only
I decide where I begin and
end, I chew them raw)
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Anna Hundert Artist Statement:
Anna Hundert studies Classics and Literary Arts at Brown University. In addition to
being a reader and a writer, she is a fiercely liberal feminist (defined as intersectional and
trans-inclusive feminism) and a religious Christian. She grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio
and attended the public schools there. Her written work (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry)
has appeared in Slippery Elm, The Round, Post-, Cornerstone, Semanteme, and The Fiske
Guide’s College Essays That Work.
