What We Kept
       

We kept the war under our tongues
kept it in our hamstrings
in our bones.
We kept the war in our cereal bowls
in our juice
kept it in our first love
standing in the porch light
waiting to be kissed.
We kept it close
in the hems of our shirts
our face cream
kept it in our bad skin.
We kept it in our driveways
sitting quiet in the yard
flying the Bronx River Parkway, 2 a.m.,
kept it in key rings
smashed into tables,
the imprints they left
on our palms.
We kept it door-to-door
moss-green in hinges.
Kept it mean
under our fingernails
forgotten in our socks—

Sometimes we stood at the edge
of a blueberry field, birds lit
by the last of the sun
but under our skin
the whirr-click of the war beginning . . .

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Copyright © 2020 Megan Alpert All rights reserved
from The Animal at Your Side
Airlie Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission