Amplify LGBTQ+ Poets, Day 26

Love letter

by Donika Kelly

I wake each morning.
And am disappointed in the waking.

In the evening, in the hours before sleep,
I drag canyons into my forearms, dredge

the little tributaries of mud and fish.
These pits and hollows make a mess of everything

they touch. I am feeling, spooling
away from what holds muscle to bone.

Tumbling from what holds me to the world.
O, to do away with the meat and light of me.

from BESTIARY: POEMS by Donika Kelly. Published by Graywolf Press. Copyright 2016 by Donika Kelly.

Most Poetry will post a poem by a LGBTQ+ poet, selected by our members, each day through the month of August.