Poem: "for when i cannot sleep"

By: Derek Maiolo

it is dawn, strange
at times wet from wonder—I loved a boy once
and still I find myself
early mornings plucking
the tiny scabs on my brain, bits of color come out
and I turn on the shower
to wipe myself from sleeping with another married man.

before leaving I make toast
in his kitchen—I see a note from his mother on a jar of jam
in black ink it reads
with love, always.

let the wind wrap me ‘round
and tell me something of this life its bend up the mountain
like the small of his back
and its muscled crest
that I kiss until morning.