flesh [Kissing his cheek.]
Kissing his cheek. Swallowing water. An orgasm.
Blooms on the nightstand. Too many peaches to eat.
A bit of that drench. A residue.
Can’t reenact though we try and try.
Ecstasy belongs to the past, when twenty,
when back then, when all-out and youth burn.
A lyrical time. I revisit it in dreams
as one who’s abdicated.
As the purest once-lapsed nun.
From Skeletons by Deborah Landau. Copyright © 2023 by Deborah Landau. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of Copper Canyon Press.
Deborah Landau
Deborah Landau grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and earned a BA from Stanford University. She went on to receive an MA in English from Columbia University and a PhD in English and American literature from Brown University, where she was a Jacob K. Javits Fellow.