Poetry Unbound

R.A. Villanueva — Life Drawing

2020-12-07

Who do you trust with your body? In this poem, a man writes about his wife’s life-drawing class. She’s been sketching a naked male model for weeks, and the poet worries, comparing himself, trying to figure out how he feels. This poem moves from anxiety to request to consent to reciprocality. His self-consciousness about sharing his body with someone is transformed into trust and vulnerability.R.A. Villanueva is the author of Reliquaria, winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poet...