In the truck it was both of us crying—
admiring each other’s method in the dark.
Once, I ate needles for love.
Pried the poison from the flower and how
your moonlit kindness saved me.
In the long abandoned brothel,
we stood near the heart shaped hole
where the hot tub had been.
Red, I’ll presume.
Implausible and finite as a rose.
Louise Mathias is the author of two books of poems, most recently The Traps. She lives in Joshua Tree, California.
