Lovers Quarrel

 

Then I kick a hole

in the drywall and storm

into the winter midnight,

no coat except for my fury.

 

Gulping air, I almost laugh

at the scope, the arc

of my rage.  The night

answers with a double-

 

helping of silence.  Cold

pokes its acupuncture needles

at me until I am distracted

by the pregnant sky.  Utter

 

stillness, heaviness before

the first flake flies.  Humbled,

I see beyond my choking

selfishness, stop wanting

 

a car to spin too fast around

the corner, an attacker to be hiding

in a nearby bush.  You must be

pacing inside as the snow falls

 

but you do not try to find me.

I continue to walk, not to punish,

rather to learn this path

as it changes, softens, reminds

 

me of raking the hair

on your chest that first time,

startled by the soft heat

covering muscle and bone.

 

When it’s time to go in,

you inform me that I need

to purchase a sheet of 3/8” thick

drywall, sandpaper, and spackle.

 

The next day we joke about

the shoddy original workmanship,

but neither of us, I think,

believes the repair complete.
 

Showering in the Dark

 

It’s not as erotic as one might think,

more of a fact-finding mission:

she sluices off sleep, then

tests uniformity in tissue from breast

to underarm.  Traces slight depressions

from surgeries that have melted

into translucent scars.  Is alerted

to soap-catching hills and valleys.

Pain in one hamstring.  Curls unfurling

with new ideas to the lower back.

 

Her private blackouts enlighten more

than coffee, provide a collection

of concentrations to start the day.

Yes, she leaves the house with stray hairs

on the knees, nicks on her ankles, but

she thinks there is something to be said

for flipping off the easy judgment of sight,

learning how water pools in her eyelashes,

becomes trapped in the webs of her hands.

 

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Jennifer is an English Instructor at Erie Community College, outside of Buffalo, NY.  She lives in a very old town called Elma and spend a great deal of time renovating her 155 year-old home when she is not reading and writing.  Her collection of poetry has been published in Earth's Daughters and local magazines.