Lea Marshall
This
We never slept together. Most nights
we stayed gloriously awake together,
drenched and profane. Love steamed
from us and away, left us salt-clean
and thick. We knew not to ask.
Between glass and wood, the dark
pressed us and we let it, our fingers
spread, flanks tensed. We bit and sang,
salt-stung and quick. Paper ripped
under us, cups rattled. Mornings came
hoarse and streaked, then utterly silent.
We found the torn places and nestled there.
Mercy
My daughter says to her papa in camouflage,
if I were a deer I would tell you not to shoot
me but I would show you some deer
who are really really sick, who need to be killed.
And on her little hoofs she would walk him
through the woods, her white tail never
flickering, to where her friends were waiting.
Lea Marshall's poems have appeared in Hayden's Ferry Review, Unsplendid, Linebreak, Diode Poetry Journal, Tupelo Press's 30/30 Project, Broad Street Magazine, and elsewhere. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and was a finalist for the 2014 New Issues Poetry Prize and the 2014 Crab Orchard First Book Award. She is a freelance dance critic, and holds an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, where she is also Associate Chair of the Department of Dance & Choreography.
Return to November 2014 Edition
We never slept together. Most nights
we stayed gloriously awake together,
drenched and profane. Love steamed
from us and away, left us salt-clean
and thick. We knew not to ask.
Between glass and wood, the dark
pressed us and we let it, our fingers
spread, flanks tensed. We bit and sang,
salt-stung and quick. Paper ripped
under us, cups rattled. Mornings came
hoarse and streaked, then utterly silent.
We found the torn places and nestled there.
Mercy
My daughter says to her papa in camouflage,
if I were a deer I would tell you not to shoot
me but I would show you some deer
who are really really sick, who need to be killed.
And on her little hoofs she would walk him
through the woods, her white tail never
flickering, to where her friends were waiting.
Lea Marshall's poems have appeared in Hayden's Ferry Review, Unsplendid, Linebreak, Diode Poetry Journal, Tupelo Press's 30/30 Project, Broad Street Magazine, and elsewhere. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and was a finalist for the 2014 New Issues Poetry Prize and the 2014 Crab Orchard First Book Award. She is a freelance dance critic, and holds an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, where she is also Associate Chair of the Department of Dance & Choreography.
Return to November 2014 Edition