Today's poem is by Derek Graf

Small Continuous Explosions
       

That was the night my lover hit rock bottom.

Drove her truck off the road into a cattle pasture.

Ants smothered in white vinegar scatter along the patio ledge.

I need to give up my obsession with endings.

Flocks of oil-stained cranes drown in the Atlantic.

She chokes back a bottle of wine on the drive to rehab.

Then she's gone, dragged dead drunk in the arms of orderlies.

That was the night the artery burst in her brain.

Her words erupt like small, continuous explosions inside me.

Her father stands at the birdbath in his backyard until dawn.

I take off my clothes limb by limb. Drink this, she said. And I did.

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Copyright © 2023 Derek Graf All rights reserved
from Green Burial
Elixir Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission