Another Love Poem / Elegy

by Despy Boutris

 

another love poem

This is an ode to you in your sweats,

sitting on the couch, reading the paper

with a hot cup of coffee in your right hand.

I want to stroke the curve 

of your calf, kiss the bit of skin revealed

between your sock & the hem of your sweats. 

There is something about the visible vein 

on your chest, the bright blue branches

 

on the tops of your feet, the inside 

of your arms. You begin to bite at a hangnail, 

& I want to hold your hand. You lean forward, 

& a strand of hair falls over your face. 

 

I like you best like this: on Sunday mornings,

eyes still swollen with sleep, toes 

 

clutching the lip of the coffee table. 

I like watching you best like this: clueless,

 

not hiding your face behind the crook 

of your arm. & this is how I like life best: 

 

you & me all tousled hair, the sound of cicadas

outside, the stray cat mewing at the backdoor 

 

right on schedule—so like me, thirsting 

for your gentle hand to glide down her spine. 


elegy

It’s late & you miss him, 

so you decide to take a walk—

 

no mind the fogdrops dropping 

from pine trees. I want to go back


you decide, to where we last saw each other

 

You want the fog to clear. You want 

to see his multicolored irises shine 

 

in the light of the moon again.

You want to say here is my dress, my hair, 


my mouth, take me with you. It’s not safe 

here, you see. & death is safe. In death 

 

there’s no mourning. 

How much you would give 

 

to hold his hand again. 

You would settle 

 

for an accidental brush 

of fingers.



Despy Boutris's writing has been published or is forthcoming in American Poetry Review, American Literary Review, Southern Indiana Review, Copper Nickel, Colorado Review, The Adroit Journal, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. Currently, she teaches at the University of Houston, works as Assistant Poetry Editor for Gulf Coast, and serves as Editor-in-Chief of The West Review.

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