“Asterism”
i.
Start at the northern most point—the fall,
I stare at your balding head as you drive
to a dive outside of town. I pretend
to be one of the Hesperides calling
from my orchard. I scribble on ruled paper
about Barbie heads and masturbating in the bathtub.
You comment on the cheap drinks.
ii.
On my balcony your leg is crossed
at the knee as I weave stories of my father
into my hair, later discard them
like lit cigarettes over the rail.
[This is the moment we are immortalized,
stuck in the pincers of time.]
I prop my feet against the green lawn
chair, cross them at the ankle
and let my foot touch your thigh.
It’s a simple kind of flirting.
You, here in the night. You, staying.
iii.
My own version of Hydra: there is a snake
lying flat on its belly. I cannot tell if the snake
is you or me.
iv.
At the brightest point, we walk the streets
Winterburn, Hoosac and Haldane. It was the last
warm day that year, and we dragged our feet
through the leaves, the sound of having been there.
This is the asterism:
our visibility, our distance.
v.
I meet you at the park and for a few minutes we share a single
eye, passing it back and forth. There is an oracle to be fulfilled in
which one of us is in exile. It always ends with a father dead.
This selection comes from the poetry collection I Want To Eat So Many Kinds of Cake With You, available from Dancing Girl Press. Order your copy here.
Kelly Lorraine Andrews‘ poems have appeared or are forthcoming in PANK, Prick of the Spindle, SELFISH, and Love Me, Love My Belly, among others. She is the author of the chapbooks The Fear Archives (forthcoming, Two of Cups Press), My Body Is a Poem I Can’t Stop Writing (forthcoming, Porkbelly Press), I Want To Eat So Many Kinds of Cake With You and Mule Skinner (both from Dancing Girl Press). She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Pittsburgh. She also coedits the online journal Pretty Owl Poetry and curates its Pittsburgh reading series. Additional information about her publications, along with a slideshow of her cats, can be found at kellyandrewspoetry.com.
Beth Couture‘s work can be found in a number of journals and anthologies, including Gargoyle, Drunken Boat, The Southeast Review, Ragazine, and Thirty Under Thirty from Starcherone Books. Her novella, Women Born with Fur, was published by Jaded Ibis Press in 2014 as part of its Blue Bustard Novellas series. She graduates with her Master’s in Social Work at Bryn Mawr College in May, and she lives in West Philly with her husband and five cats.
