not being in a poetry workshop this semester means i haven't been writing lately. sad, i know. but i have a bunch of things i wrote in prague this summer and i'll just keep posting them periodically until i start writing again. this was an assignment where we were given the first line and had to write from there using some sort of stanzaic form. i think i did alright. feedback please :)

Upstate

Whenever I come here, it comes
to this—you, sipping gin

and tonic in the afternoon; me,
trying to make a metaphor of it all.

I watch watermarks forming
where our glasses meet

wood grain and the table between
us is a tree trunk, partly

hollow. Roots ensnare feet placed
toe-to-toe on wood floor, sap

dripping from inside out, sticky
but not adherent. I keep

looking for leaves, fuzzy buds,
magnolias. We search for branches

strong enough to climb, support
us both. Tree rings count

the days we’ve been reaching
around it, rough bark

peeling, interrupting our
fingers, barely touching.