Walking Around My Apartment Topless, Boston Wild Turkey and I See Each Other
By Jeni Prater
& we hold our bodies tight like a gaze.
Is it gall or instinct that I know
my stone’s-throw titties could be a Zoom background
& still stare back, prey-eyed & breasted?
It is terror the turkey’s hunch knows
to preserve its animal layers, and still
it stares back, too brazen to be prey-eyed.
I want to fear my body—
to touch my animal layers.
I wear my nipples like jewelry. I want
to delight in my body, like lush
deer who won’t scamper. On FaceTime with my love,
I wear my nipples like jewelry—breasts outlined like eyes
in rope—I relish the warm jitter of release,
like these birds who won’t scamper from their own bodies.
I hold mine tight like a gaze.
Source: Poetry (May 2026)