Poem: A Reckoning

Originally published in Bitterzoet.

Enjoy,

Owl

----------------------

A Reckoning 

cold hunted

through the little forts in the walls,

chilling mice that murmured

on the periphery of our bed.

we heard their lonely memories

above our whispers, and pretended

the candle on the nightstand,

shivering beside us,

was the last dram of a tiger,

defiant in our shared orange gaze.

we touched that night

as if our fingers were lava

and we would wake forever as one,

inscribed on the windy side

of some tragic mountain.

our kisses

offered the smallest of antidotes

to the prolific snow.

our hips limned an equator of desire,

turning away from the jaws

of insatiable February.

this home, our galleon, had been

among the constellations too long,

much older than the gyres

in our fingertips.

the sharp logic of the stars

poured through our bedroom windows,

vengeful as leaks

in a reckless container.

it was inevitable we would

merge in troubled sleep,

sensing the silken frost

bind hardbitten trees;

and the shoals of dragons in torn branches,

practicing their claws.

------------------------------

------------------------------