was sex and more of it. sex and talk of it. sex and sexuality and sexism. until some among us began to differentiate it. prefix and suffix it. label it a matter of preference, genetic reconnaissance at birth. and it was it and it was not it. until some among us began to psalm. and what about doing it. and when would we do it to each other again. and it was gratuitous. the blue and white lament of it. until it moved us into ecological proximity. what was near and how loud. the flesh budding, ripening. it had always been a matter of proximity. the what it is was close to us. lewd and it was common. consumptive and it was money. extractive and it was public.


to whet the thing a finger strums a seam of glass


then spirit set its feels on us

we were tending
we were swirling

and we were sensing when it hit us

a porous limb        a glowing portal

sam rivers on repeat


the romanticism of aromanticism inside a poem
the orifice of pitch        a clutch of birds


then our dreams became tumescent
such holiness was flame


and it was fuchsia fuchsia all over the place

Copyright © 2022 by fahima ife. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 16, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.