to temper the pomegranate red inside us

by Erin Noehre

 

fingers
trace. follow slips round
the tan husk & shell to touch, in a sense

a body
as it is. body
a world inside you
i cannot see

. . .

you cloud with wrist
underside
reaction.

wild and clean. a world inside
i damage to see.

the lake which teems

          . . .

fear a realming double. fear of process.
progress. promise

it won’t always
be like this.

. . .

stormy concrete
on, against.
with light absent

feed me unguided.

promise
i’ll love you

for what i won’t
love in myself.

          . . .

we were winded, gasping the worn shoot
of our mothers.

and this
my fear. my red with open.
eye my regimented

mind
with care

don’t autopsy me yet

. . .

wanting you singed me open.

every nerve of skin electric. un-
godded & molecular until  i no longer knew

what i was lucky for.

          . . .

all i was lucky for:

the miracle medical peel
of your laugh
and mine.

how we both washed
hands in all that
water.

all i could have missed:

. . .

we put our hands (homes) in
each other. such building i’ve learned
not so easily undone

          . . .

and of course we did
and didn’t remember. how it felt
rubbing the ripe worlds of our hips together
angels falling
                      with fruit
from our skin

 



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