Alight

One of the collaborative poems from our literary salon evening last weekend. When dessert is sweet inspiration…

While my made-up face tells a story—the fairy tale—

from this cold bitter winter

comes the sweet clutch of mud

against the skin, a film of grit left behind—

reminded me of my Great Dane

as a child, licking my plump cheeks

to get the chocolate off—

cleaning the evidence away, my co-conspirator,

he shook me and said,

“Not like that silly.”

After the cat fled upstairs,

we said a toast to the ground under our feet

and drank a sunlight, aged beyond our experience,

and said goodnight, almost to say goodbye.