Coupling

Wednesday Poem (Audio)

Coupling

To have his lower lip
between her teeth
was sometimes enough

her cupped tongue
to birth turtle eggs
nesting themselves

in his throat.
Nothing is
as ugly as hatchlings—

as raw, as needing.
A press of bones,
the intimacy of knuckles in the

caesura of vertebrae. The bird’s eye
of the moment of obscurity:
the hurt before pain

hold, hold, hold
before the pecking,
membrane and shell.

The long fingers
of the rainmaker
fisherman in the desert

pause
left ventricle squeezing
the valve slaps.

Legs, arms, teeth—
everything: mouths
of lungfish

gasping
in the wet.
It’s not pretty, not pretty.

(Mercy Island. Phoenicia Publishing, 2011)

Thank you for taking the time to read/listen.

I hope you have a great week!

Warmly,

Ren Powell’s Acts of a Recovering Drama Queen
Writing against Melodrama by Engaging with the Natural World
Give some love. It only takes a little ❤️.