“Quick, Quick, Said The…”

We walked by tallow-light;

We warmed ourselves;

We walked by gallows bright;

We warned ourselves;

The air was breathable as before

But not by our bodies’

On their way

To ecstasy:

Outside their

Souls—

The experience was

Painful:

An agonizing

Quickening;

It’s not the

Start of spring;

Nevertheless

In my mind’s eye

I see crocuses;

There is no buck

Unless a young stud strides by;

There is no bloom

Though there are cactuses

So in several weeks

There’ll be pink.

**

Adam Strauss has poems forthcoming in Drunken Boat, the Colorado Review, and

Fence.  As well, he as a chapbook, Address, out with Scantily Clad Press.

Poets whose work he daily adores include Gwendolyn Brooks and George Herbert.

Archived at http://lit.konundrum.com/poetry/straussa_poems.php

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