Poem by Noelle Kocot

You Will Always Be My Animal

I fathom your blue-green essence

Against the corrosive red fibers of the day.

In reaching toward you my arms catch fire.

In attempting to touch you they blossom into ash.

They mingle with yours forever and forever and forever.

Too often, you are only a shadow cast

Across an endless sunny Wednesday:

Trapezoidal sleep, spell-check aflame with saints,

Roseate silo, the arrows are dark, the moment sharp.