by Martha Silano

The Past


 

As if anything were possible, like seven opposable thumbs,
like going back to your high school prom in a chartreuse gown
with a crotch-high slit, like returning to that virgin-voyage
in a tannin-tinged pine barrens lake, a cool smoothness
kissing your cunt. When discussing Kant turned you on
like Ichiro bobblehead night at the Kingdome. When every
quarrel ended in touch. When you were invisible’s
opposite, the beetle newly named because no one
till then had seen it, a single shining word beside a river
of syntax. When you were the gull pecking madly at whatever
scrap of food was thrown. When being desired was enough.

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Martha Silano’s books include Gravity Assist, Reckless Lovely, and The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception, all from Saturnalia Books. She also co-authored, with Kelli Russell Agodon, The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts For Your Writing Practice. Martha teaches at Bellevue College.