“Blushing is the most peculiar and the most human of all expressions.”
— Charles Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.

The animal that blushes is a tremendous thing.
It thinks itself clever and beyond, beyond the earth, as it stomps

Fields and canyons and mountains and laboratory floors and marble corridors.
When warm thick hands cradle the skull like the sky

Does the sun, contradictions begin to fill its shoes with hard rain, and the truth
Spills over the walls of the face.

The animal that blushes is a tremendous thing.
It harbors fear and molds it like river clay, layer upon layer

Until they have built a hateful cage to inhabit with the mites
And grubs and roaches and the fleas. It feeds and feeds until it can no longer

Taste the corruption, then the firefly draws close, rakes the hope, mating
Balefire igniting black wood because that is its purpose. Don’t you see how the truth

Spills over the walls of the face?
The animal that blushes is a tremendous thing.

It loves with heart, the whole of it, freely
Opens those hallowed chambers to another, because that is

Its purpose. It needs to give and give and give itself and fold another’s troubles
And delights into the hardy stew simmering above

Ash and coal. Bless the dead and from bones partake in somatic
Nourishment, bedding beneath gossamer dusk, and the slow magic of each other’s truth

Spilling over the walls of the face.
The animal that blushes is a tremendous thing.

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Julia Hill is a music photojournalist living in New Jersey and can be found most nights in Philly covering a show. Her debut poem “Monopoly on Death,” was featured in the 2024 October issue of The Lake. Julia’s poetry focuses on the dynamics of womanhood, nature, and love.