Music, nectar poetry

AUDREY L. REYES

title: humpty dumpty sat in the 24th floor, rationalizing a secret poem: a flame lit at night on the steps of the riverbank draws eyes to a clandestine bedtime dance/ it has been a long, feverish summer; what does suffix warmth do for a body prefixed with heat/ what does fire do for eyes counting tall streetlamps as altars. the firestarter is brazen; above it, a patrol car cruises for curfew violators/ they do not stop for a bonfire on a stoop they cannot see/ i watch from my ivory tower and consider the intentions for faceless fires at midnight/ i can only guesstimate what the river’s anger could be like when the wind carries its deprivation through the bedroom window, an arbitrary preoccupation/ perhaps it is safety or a warm meal; perhaps necessity; perhaps a cloak for the river’s bile/ perhaps, they mean to swathe their intentions in darkness and go unnoticed—not to signal fire an intrusion.

Audrey L. Reyes (she/her) is a digital content specialist and former early childhood educator whose favorite workplace activity is raising hell. Her work appears or is forthcoming in QUINCE magazine, MarĂ­as at Sampaguitas,and DEAR. She resides in Manila, Philippines.

Leave a comment