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ARTS AND CULTURE

Decadence

  • 08 November 2021
Selected poems

Decadence

Lying on our side in concavity

spoon-nesting the warmth of skin

your breath on my shoulder

an idle arm draped like loose ribbon

two commas ,, an extra long pause —

after so much exertion there’s respite

(we’ve just bracketed)

encircled one another

I don’t want an ellipsis fade to black …

but an arrest in time

or a backward space <--

to the first line in our story.

Lasso

You’re a scavenger

so restless in your wakings

picking remnants in the hours

thieving at the doorstep

to sleep-this threshold

I turn to your profile

mussed hair dark on grey

we are always touching

a careless limb a stray finger

ankles knees and elbows

the bread-warm stretch of you

chest beat like wings

slipping in and out

breaking surface tension

and my thoughts of you

a lasso made of motes.

For you I would

For you I would

fold the passage of time

into small portable squares

surrender kites from their strings

capture the heart of a geode

For you I would

rinse the dark sky clean

braid the air with veering eagles

swallow a wild red peony

cut through a field of sugarcane

For you I would

replace all lacunae

with hieroglyphics

score the stone of us

soft buff until sheen.

Thuy On is Reviews Editor of ArtsHub and an editor, critic and poet. Her first book, a collection of poetry, Turbulence, was published in 2020 by UWAP. She's presently working on her second collection, Decadence. Author photo by Brett Rawlings photography.