Tipton Poetry Journal – Winter 2022
this time I give you a rose Elena Botts yes, i long for you there is no doubt in my mind, in my mind there is no doubt in my mind we are all so soon to die have so little time to lie in bed with the radio on to check the post for the relative gone to wear the pink skirt and the embroidered top with jewel earrings. i will try to determine what it is in your bright dark eyes what it is you are made of like some dear sister or brother my spine to your spine the separation this kiss implies i am yours to find in this wide forever night to render the winter peace with the thoughtlessness of landscape in deep sleep a deer with one antler torn wanders the lost clearing i imagine you come anew, pure and so true knowing what it is. you are one thing and i am another, spoken out loud differing in my pulse and mind, feeling intemperate beside you, knowing i am torn from you by the message i have left of sincere appreciation this devotion makes me, and takes me north along the road
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