Constellations
My poem, “Constellations,” was published in the 2013 edition of Poictesme, the Literary Magazine at Virginia Commonwealth University. You can read it here or on page 106 to the left.
constellations
The sky is a bitch curled at the feet
Of her master. She has stolen
Each star from the dusk, one by one,
And buried them in my neighbor’s yard.
T. calls them ghosts and sprinkles them
Across his home like midnight memories.
The skyline is a hearth gone cold and
The rain begins to take off the city’s clothes
Slowly unzipping bridges with kisses.
John Coltrane improvises a gentle solo for his second wife,
But Heartbreak is struggling to keep the candles lit.
She cannot hear the steam of his song rising,
A flower budding inside dumpsters and drunks alike.
The swan song he whistles is emptier
Than the black tar dripping off my fingertips,
Than the tea I left on the counter back home
With Heartbreak waiting up for me in the dark.
