qarrtsiluni

by Barbara G.S. Hagerty

after Andre Breton and Cecilia Wooloch

My love with his shoulders of whiskey and sloe gin
and eyes like parachutes that lift me
on wild currents and strong arms to catch.
My love with his compass of ligaments
for flinging us toward islands of paradise.
My love with his knowledgeable fingers trailing starlight,
his mouth a coral hibiscus.
My love with his chest a palisades
and his sinews under me the seismic
shifting of tectonic plates.
My love with his musical hands and his back a palisades,
his clavicle a high escarpment and a rookery of eagles.
My love with his scent of fragrant woodsmoke
and fish just caught in his silver nets.
My love with his quick senses of one alert
to the manifold worlds of mercury and salt
which he travels on two strong feet
like capable pontoons and the side of him is a sail
and his lungs two bellows for catapulting us aloft.

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The current holder of the South Carolina Arts Commission poetry fellowship, Barbara G.S. Hagerty (website) is also the author of The Guest House (Finishing Line, 2009). Her work has appeared in such journals as The Greensboro Review, The Sun, Kakalak, and others.