That fake desert tumble down
tumble weed destination we go
when there is nowhere else
to share our bodies. Down the road,
not too far — threadbare linens.
We can wreck the room again
and not have to clean up afterward,
just leave, and leave, and leave again.
Meet me in the desert of desire,
rattles like snakes jittering in
the window AC, throb of insects
drifting through the broken bathroom vent.
Clean sheets beckon, enfold us,
fly away to reveal a flash flood
of sweat, steam rising from our bodies,
the work of love has spent us.
We sleep a few hours
before slipping into the parking lot
to leave in separate cars,
brief and satiated.
Driving home alone,
still rattling,
still humming.
✶✶✶✶
Carol Lynne Knight is co-director of Anhinga Press. Her book, Quantum Entanglement (Apalachee Press) was released in 2010. Her poetry has appeared in Louisiana Literature, Tar River Review, Poetry Motel, Earth’s Daughters, The Ledge, Slipstream, Broome Review, Comstock Review, Epicenter, Redactions, Iconoclast, Epicenter, HazMat, and So to Speak, and in the anthologies Off the Cuffs (Soft Skull Press), Touched by Eros (Live Poets Society). She is a fellow of the Hambidge Center for the Arts and the Bowers House. She is the co-editor of Snakebird: Thirty Years of Anhinga Poets. She grew up in South Florida and graduated from the University of Miami and Florida State University. She has worked as an art instructor, potter, videographer, copy writer, and graphic designer. She lives in Tallahassee, Florida.
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