Revising the Day

Vicky revisits her fondest day
in the center of repose,
the afternoon she wanders through
her luscious and her best.
A lover in flannel trousers
sinks teeth into a peach, reciting
lines of a coward but a courageous
man himself. Lapping foam
dissolves sand beneath her feet
and the girl they shepherd between them
no longer embodies her disgrace
or their defeat.

Benedictions glance across surfaces
yellow like the peach, succulent,
equally as sweet. The child
is a dandelion carried on his breath.
The great love of Vicky’s life has chosen
them above his wife. Gone the days
of scandal and shame. Peaceful now
the sob-filled nights. Tears
that stained turn to ocean spray.
Salts that burned caress.
In the hospital room where for weeks
she’s lain horns overcome her pleasure
plundering these finest hours
each a scarcity to be treasured.
Her daughter pleads on saxophone
as her husband trumpets their petition
beseeching her return to mortal concerns:
a soiled bed, this crippled silhouette.
On the beach, Vicky’s sun falters
before it sets. Overtaken by agony,
abandoning bliss, she leaves
behind her best wish for herself
a wave collapsing from its crest.

Comparison

I woke this morning with tears shed
for the grateful and the good.
You wept this morning as a rooster crows
for morning yolk like blood.
I scratched as chickens will
in the shadow of Mount Hood
and I forgave as the angels do
without consequence, without brood.
You starve as devils do
without interlude, without word.

Jeremy Spears is a poet with work appearing in publications such as the Green Mountains Review, the Illinois Review, Flyway and Wordgathering. He is a recipient of the David Lindahl Prize from the JWR, a finalist in this year’s Tucson Festival of the Book Poetry Competition and a participant in the 2016 Aspen Summer Words Juried Workshop.