Lake Sunapee; Late February; October; Fergal and Kiernan Go Fishing

BY RAGE HEZEKIAH

Lake Sunapee 

for Jess

I rise to find
your face

awash in steam
dark coffee

cupped between
calloused hands

the morning
bathed in sunlight

aspens cloaked
in fresh snow

you look up
from your book 

eyes dark-rimmed
jungle cat

thirst-slaked
when we first kissed

years ago
on a dance floor

dimly-lit with
greenish light

I thought you
wore mascara

now I know
your hunger 

natural kohl  
black lashes

there before & after
you wake

home is where
the kettle whistles

midday we return
from local woods 

I watch you
pull a ribbon

of honey into 
handmade mugs

sweeten two
cups of tea

we sit quietly
at ease

love
know this

you are who
I asked for 

on my knees

---

Late February

Feet suspended from the floor
still in their leather shoes, 

still 

after the last 

incremental movement, 
pendular weight

at the end

of braided rope. A man
with thick rubber gloves

removes carnelian puddles
from the tile:

poppy petals, 

beta fish,

bright pools
beneath your form—
erasure. 

You make certain,
commit 

a stranger covers the bruising,
both/and

an end 

surprising no one. I know

you. Beth calls 

the rain streams 

between sewer grates
on Mount Auburn, 

archaic brick slick with wet.

---

October

Walking in the arboretum, 

I couldn’t tell

if the weightless forms 

were falling leaves 

or the flight 

of monarch butterflies.

---

Fergal and Kiernan Go Fishing

With two fingers, 
you introduce 
the hook to the worm, 
a bulbous form writhing.
I am not squeamish, 
and only want to watch 
you pierce the skin,
this thickness, a part of you
pressing the bait. Let me
be the thing that comes
in contact with your hands,
I don’t care what we catch.

---

Rage Hezekiah is a Cave Canem, Ragdale, and MacDowell Fellow who earned her MFA from Emerson College. She is a recipient of the Saint Botolph Emerging Artist Award in Literature and was nominated for Best New Poets, 2017. Her chapbook, Unslakable, is a 2018 Vella Chapbook Award Winner published by Paper Nautilus Press. Stray Harbor (Finishing Line Press, 2019) is her debut full-length collection of poems. You can find more of her work at ragehezekiah.com.