GordonSquareReview
  • About
  • Submit
  • Past Issues
    • Issue 1
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 3
    • Issue 4
    • Issue 5
    • Issue 6
    • Issue 7
    • Issue 8
    • Issue 9
    • Issue 10
    • Issue 11
    • Issue 12
    • Issue 13
    • 2024 Blackout Special Issue
    • Issue 14
Picture

The Night is Always Female,

Poetry by ​​Despy Boutris
by which I mean ripe with longing—​ 
much like me, breath the rhythm
 
of a windstorm, as your eyes flit to the sky
 tearing itself open, the screaming
 
reds bruising into nightfall. And my eyes
are on the crescent moon-shaped scar
 
beside your right brow, your eyes
amber as the darkening sky, standing so close
 
our heartbeats match in rhythm,
that steady ba boom ba boom ba boom.
 
How I lead your mouth to mine, turn
to the animal you make of me,
 
too ravenous to release, to be released,
even as the sirens draw near
 
as, a mile away, a forest goes up
in flames. Call it thirst or hunger—this need
 
to take something into my mouth
to avoid demise. You pull back,
 
lashes against my cheek, breath
making my hair stand on end. I’ve wanted you
 
since the weather got warm, you say.
Here, the weather is always warm
—​
 
especially with these fires, turning trees
into stakes. Not enough water to quell
 
the blazes, trunks hot as our want,
our mouths the taste of smoke.
Picture
Despy Boutris
​
Despy Boutris’s writing has been published or is forthcoming in Copper Nickel, Ploughshares, Crazyhorse, AGNI, American Poetry Review, The Gettysburg Review, Colorado Review, and elsewhere. Currently, she lives in California and serves as Editor-in-Chief of The West Review.

GORDON SQUARE REVIEW

Home
About
Submit
Contest
Picture
 COPYRIGHT 2017. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Picture
  • About
  • Submit
  • Past Issues
    • Issue 1
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 3
    • Issue 4
    • Issue 5
    • Issue 6
    • Issue 7
    • Issue 8
    • Issue 9
    • Issue 10
    • Issue 11
    • Issue 12
    • Issue 13
    • 2024 Blackout Special Issue
    • Issue 14