Getting Ready

Austen Leah Rosenfeld

There was a time when memory was theory,             before we knew the shapes of constellations,or fifteen tips for maintaining a relationship, before             weather patterns, before meaning, when my sisterused to call me to her room while she got dressed.             Sometimes the world feels like a flashfrom an old-fashioned camera. I would sit down on her bed,             next to her latest boyfriend, with handstucked under my legs and eyes like two dark holes             widening inside my head. Sometimes I find myselfin places, and I don’t know how I got there.             Together we would watch as she took off her shirt,her naked body bright and buzzing. Like something             that would shock you if you touched it. SometimesI don’t know where to look when I’m at a crowded party.             I remember I could feel his gaze, I could see ittossed across the room, like a ream of paper.             Sometimes dreaming is a lot like watching television.On which side of that secret did I stand.             Was I my sister. Was I him. Who did my eyes belong to.Sometimes I can convince myself of anything.

Feature Date

Series

Selected By

Share This Poem

Print This Poem

Austen Leah Rosenfeld is a PhD candidate in creative writing and literature at the University of Southern California. Her poems have appeared in Salmagundi Magazine, AGNI, Zyzzyva, Indiana Review, Gulf Coast, Poetry Northwest, Narrative, Carolina Quarterly, The Sewanee Review, Prairie Schooner, and others. She has a BA from Stanford University and an MFA in poetry from Columbia University.

The Iowa Review

Fall 2018

Iowa City, Iowa

The University of Iowa

Editor: Harilaos Stecopoulos
Managing Editor: Lynne Nugent
Poetry Editor: Izzy Casey

Edited by faculty, students, and staff from the renowned writing and literature programs at the University of Iowa, The Iowa Review takes advantage of this rich environment for literary collaboration to create a worldwide conversation among those who read and write contemporary literature.

We publish a wide range of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, translations, photography, and work in emerging forms by both established and emerging writers. Work from our pages has been consistently selected to appear in the anthologies Best American Essays, Best American Short Stories, Best American Poetry, The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories.

Poetry Daily Depends on You

With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.