Twenty-two
In that I was a baby poet then
with dust in my teeth, the sweetspire
of my mother’s yellowed slip,
having been a virgin, then a bornagain
virgin, then born again and again,
the pinkish drool, synovial fisttonic,
I’d write you, you, you, and drag you,
darling, through the pond’s wetweeds,
sky and stamen, short of breath,
a little note to self, little selfsong
about stone boats, a kiss on the throat,
rootswitch and buttercup, and mygod,
how easy desire came, how easy
the petals in the gutter, the cockpilfer
and rain. I stained the sheets
of all the pages with thisandthat,
dahlia and twine, it’s June, and what
I’ve not deleted, ash and knucklebone,
I know by heart, not tired, not yet,
of being brave, come, come, comeclose,
closer still—of this life, let’s have our fill.
with dust in my teeth, the sweetspire
of my mother’s yellowed slip,
having been a virgin, then a bornagain
virgin, then born again and again,
the pinkish drool, synovial fisttonic,
I’d write you, you, you, and drag you,
darling, through the pond’s wetweeds,
sky and stamen, short of breath,
a little note to self, little selfsong
about stone boats, a kiss on the throat,
rootswitch and buttercup, and mygod,
how easy desire came, how easy
the petals in the gutter, the cockpilfer
and rain. I stained the sheets
of all the pages with thisandthat,
dahlia and twine, it’s June, and what
I’ve not deleted, ash and knucklebone,
I know by heart, not tired, not yet,
of being brave, come, come, comeclose,
closer still—of this life, let’s have our fill.
May / June 2023
Nicole Callihan's most recent book is This Strange Garment, published by Terrapin Books in March 2023. Her other books include SuperLoop and the poetry chapbooks: The Deeply Flawed Human, Downtown, and ELSEWHERE (with Zoë Ryder White), as well as a novella, The Couples. Her work has appeared in Kenyon Review, Colorado Review, Conduit, The American Poetry Review, and as a Poem-a-Day selection from the Academy of American Poets.
Art: Jennifer Peart. Travertine in Spring, acrylic on wood panel, 8”x10”