Thrush Poetry Journal
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MRB Chelko

Love Poem

I dreamt an office so bright

I could not see a thing

the light burned my eyes

and work became impossible

as I swirled in my own inability

to escape the limits

of a body on this earth

with its sun too close

its windows too thin

its creatures vulnerable

to the day and its powers

even the fern

I potted ten months ago

yellows leaf by leaf

no matter where I set the pot

a dark and crumbling silence

shadows the brim of its canopy

I am such a plant

from the sidewalk at night

the four windows

of our apartment smolder

like coals overturned

in a stubborn pit fire

by the last lonesome friend

crouched outside with a stick

I married that man

who stays for what’s left

who shoulders the moon

as he pokes for a spark 




MRB Chelko is the author of Manhattations, which was selected by Mary Ruefle for the Poetry Society of America's New York Chapbook Fellowship. Chelko’s poems appear widely in journals, including Black Warrior Review, Cincinnati Review, Crazyhorse, Gulf Coast, and Poetry International. She co-hosts the performance salon, BUFFET, and lives with her family in New York City. mrbchelko.com




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