Poem Beginning With a Typo by Nicelle Davis

I would rather stable myself in the eye
than hazard the high saddle of the nose
or wander across the shoulder blade’s
desolate salt. I would rather wallow
in the vitreous humor than smother
under the belly button’s lint.
And oh, the keening of the wind
as it passes over the bottle mouth of the ear!
Bodies are treacherous & prone
to spells of heat. Keep me as
the apple of the eye, cool & crisp.

*

In a recent post at her blog, California poet Nicelle Davis used the phrase “I would rather stable myself in the eye,” which struck me as so poetically correct that I couldn’t imagine what “stable” might be a typo for, and had to click through from Feedly to find out (“stab,” of course). I hope she doesn’t mind my drawing attention to what I’m sure was some device’s autocorrect mistake.