Sally J. Johnson: Tonight the Stars are Strung Up Like Elegies

Sally J. Johnson
TONIGHT THE STARS ARE STRUNG UP LIKE ELEGIES

I want them for myself,
……………………..but you’re right.

It’s easier to take a picture
………………………………..of this heat,

to pick bread crumbs
…………………….from a crocodile’s teeth.

Tell me you can follow me to wherever is home.

Find me by the pollen-
……………………..yellow paint punctuating
……………………………………………..these highway hips.

The bare light bulb
…………………….of my belly in the darkness.

The dare of that opalescent moon
………………………………lending me her macabre lipstick.

You and I can swim the length
…………………………………of this alligator land.

I am all breaststroke,
…………………bobbing and lack of breath.

Of course you are backstroke.
……………………………….Craning your neck to see the sky

Sally J. Johnson received her M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington where she served as managing editor for the award-winning literary journal Ecotone. Her poetry and nonfiction have appeared or are forthcoming in The Collagist, Bodega, The Pinch, Weave, Sycamore Review, and elsewhere. She is a poetry editor for Green Briar Review and works as a publicist in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Find her online @sallyjayjohnson.