®

Today's poem is by Beth Gylys

What Drives Us
        "I confused love with Adrenaline—Terri Witek

He was like the key to a cellar
where they store moonshine,
like light sluicing an alley
where rats live and tricks
turn. His hands made my body
irresponsible. I couldn't get
enough of the deep trough,
the bread that made me thin.
My eyes like deep black bowls,
my mind a dreidl in a wobbly spin.
For a year I barely slept; food
tasted like wood shavings.

No wonder the rest seem dull
with their used tires and dusty bureaus.
No wonder I keep hiding
each time one of them knocks.
I lived for clutches of moments
behind locked doors, for the sound
of his voice that brought my self
into my self, like slipping on a dress
in a room tongued by moonlight,
a saxophone's dark chocolate
rising through floorboards.



Copyright © 2016 Beth Gylys All rights reserved
from Sky Blue Enough To Drink
Grayson Books
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission

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