Manchas

Encased in motherhood 

I finger the disease between your joints

See the ill until it isn’t

Sticky white squares suction-cupped to your chest

The saddest sticker collection I’ve ever seen 

Your heartbeat couldn’t even soften the blow

Neither could that love song that smelled wrong 

Pass me the aux and the coke 

But only in that order         

All these things we won't ask for 

flowers, flowers, the wavering smell of meat 

Hold me, tease me 

underwear trapping your legs as you carried me

Limbs becoming religion 

And we prayed all day 

My nosebleed an elegy for the evening 

Maybe I can find a skywriter to tell you how long any of us have left

Or how I’ve missed you like this 

and you’ve missed me like this too

Published in Contemporary Verse 2, 2023