POETRY

BY LAURA MARIE BAILEY

LUX

This tender iridescence

slips spills

through knitted fingers,

snags and splinters

in prism eyes,

pools and puddles

lambent mess

all over your mattress

What are we gonna do with all this light?

SWELTER

This room’s got too many fissures in it

I can feel the night panting

Buck Moon breath salt hot

We just found the blankets

But we don’t need them

Too busy to bother

Untangling the sheets

Too busy

Counting stars

Counting freckles

Making constellations out of both

Too busy

Tasting burnt summer

On each other’s skin

Kissing the pink places

Where it stings most

Too busy

Learning this new dark

Forgetting to close the curtains

Tonight there’s Capricorn in the sky

We can patch the plaster tomorrow

Laura Marie Bailey is a self-published author whose work includes poetry collection ‘Grey’ and novel-in-verse ‘Johnny Kid & The Art of Dreaming’. She is a retired model and serial hobbyist living in Ohio with her husband and cat. She currently spends most of her time learning to use power tools and renovating their 1920s home.