Shallow Ends / Sugar High

First published in Pinstriped Zine (US), Issue Ten, 2019

Shallow Ends

We peel our swimmers off with pruned

fingers in the dark, drown

our impulses like toasters in bathtubs

We stumble around the word like kids

running round pools, peer down

at our blurry toes—water hides nothing

Let the word snatch our tongues

Snag its letters in our throats

Bury it alive in our bloated bellies

Open your mouth but please do

not speak. The word is happy

where it sleeps, choked

on chlorine and electricity   

Sugar High

Press my lips to your skin

and taste childhood

My eye-line hovers at table’s edge—anticipation

for you stings like long waits before fairy-bread

spreads and fountains of cardinal red cordial—

How it dribbles down your chin forever

I edge closer to your picnic rug on all fours

knees scraped from the needing

But fairy-bread is just butter with sprinkles

on top and cordial can’t get you drunk

Yet I’m beginning to think

there are other highs worth chasing