The Speaker

The speaker in “Sometimes I Think My Body Leaves a Shape in the Air” imagines what movement would be like if she could transcend the limits of her physical body. The free-flowing state of water and flexible movement of jellyfish are among the images the speaker evokes to describe her wish. Her feverish desire to “be untethered and tethered all at once” rock her to her core, causing a trembling heat in her body (8-9). Aware of the impossibility of her wish, the speaker turns to close observation (of both her inner condition and the external world) to guide her onward.

In general, one should not automatically assume that the speaker is the poet. However, the epistolary nature of “Sometimes I Think My Body Leaves a Shape in the Air” indicates that the speaker is Limón herself at a particular time and place in her life...