El Burro

El Burro, Vintage 2013. Spain.

off white skin carved with thin cadmium red imprints

left from bra straps

that shifted when you fell backwards

exasperated into your bed,

black hair strewn across off white sheets.

 

silent, the only sound

the light breath past your lips

like fugitives, nearly undetectable,

given away by the small rise a fall of your

stomach as you stare

at the back of your eyelids, drift.

 

“are you hungry?”

“no.”

“me neither.”

 

the sun falls just low enough

to sneak past the top of your

windowsill, stained by a bottle of cheap wine from the first time we met, and into my eyes.

I look away.

 

you sit up

you read

and I listen.

Reviews

[Hannah Cheng]

I'M IN LOVE WITH THIS POEM. Why is it called El Burro?

[Jonathan W]

Hannah, thanks for your interest! El Burro was the name of the bottle of wine that the girl in the poem picked up inside a gas station before we stumbled back to her apartment. It was cheap, and gross, and was spilled on the window sill.

[UnholyFate]

Lovely imagery. Lovely mood. Lovely work.

[Jonathan W]

thank you for your kind words!

[. serah .]

~ magnificent and quite cinematic... and the closing is very cerebral and yet deeply romantic...