What is straightness and how is it created
We asked in a math sense
Moth-soft ash smeared on fingers
I would be immolated in a blink
even by the flicker of eyelids
gleam and need withheld
It felt so dangerous to confess want
rising. Every iota precious
side by side two women like new bread
threshed star of your breath
against mine rough like lichen
your jacket under my hands
cold a little cold
the warship’s moored ledges
Jennifer Mackenzie’s first book of poems, My Not-My Soldier, was published as part of Fence Books’ Modern Poets Series. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, most recently Jubilat, Image, Prelude, and Spillway. She lives in the Bronx where she teaches at Lehman College, CUNY.