unsavage the boy
        after ansel elkins

unhook his gaze
from hers         unappetite the lust
burning in his belly         dislocate
the heat of his heavy limbs
unpin his shadow from her
silhouette         peel his prickly pubic
from under her hip         undress
her skin, the stench of his salt         unglisten
his sweat from her eye         unclot
her cold blood on the bed sheet
and send it back to the heart.         unfasten
his fingers from her esophagus         return
every choked vein that screamed
against his grasp, return every silent swallow
to her throat, return every stop he pushed
into her pulse, return every stop
his ears neglected every no
every please she begged like a prayer
under him         return the blood

bleach the bed sheet back
to white         repaint the night
a kinder color         uncolor
the memory from her mind
return the girl her sanity
return the boy's hands
to his sides         return the boy
to his mother         return the sin
back to god         return the sin back
to god

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Copyright © 2022 Nicole Adabunu All rights reserved
from The Greensboro Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission