Candice Louisa Daquin/The Feathered Sleep

Tell me again how it will be

you lay tracks down like new paved road

is unperturbed by continual motion

as I stood in the dank bar, awaiting finding

my junior-sized jeans found in bargain bin

I hardly knew myself

incantations of growing up had only

prepared me to begin

you were proffering suggestion

behind us fish swam in neon tank and dirty glass

had I looked up from the flame cupped in your hands

I may have seen the encasement and neglect

like graffiti in toilets and flint within your malice

you were born on a razor and did not know

how not to cut

even those things you loved

as hummingbird devotes himself to

water and nectar until

the flower dries and possesses no pollen

we are beautiful moments growing older

with each step forward

the feeling of your fingers in mine

escapes…