Your nose grazing my shoulder. Clothes petaling free.
Only your neck. Only my ear. Soft and perennial.
I fold your t-shirts and leave them in stacks
around the room. Television garden.
I show you a wild rash across my elbow:
red speckled, Jackson-Pollocking across skin.
You show me your favorite scar: a tributary
crossing your forearm. I remember a morning
where you told me to show you
my flesh. We drove the green car
and the stop lights blistered all the way.
You told me I was a sidewalk aberration
and I fed you spoonfuls of butter
to slow your mouth down. I removed the fork
all by myself and you never saw the mark it left.
The dinner plate steering wheel, all set for feasting.
I was your favorite wound.
Robin Gow is a trans poet and young adult author. They are the author of OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL DEGENERACY (Tolsun Books 2020) and the chapbook HONEYSUCKLE (Finishing Line Press 2019). Their first young adult novel, A MILLION QUIET REVOLUTIONS is slated for publication winter 2022 with FSG. Gow’s poetry has recently been published in POETRY, New Delta Review, and Washington Square Review. Gow received their MFA from Adelphi University where they were also an adjunct instructor. Gow is a managing editor at The Nasiona.
Cloony Buttercup illustration by C.B. Auder (digital collage).
Claw & Blossom 