red booth
review


   issue 4teen   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

The Permutations of the Word We 

Used in context:

In the Big Horns, below the medicine wheel
flipping finished cigarette butts into my pocket.  As we pitched
the tent, I rehearsed it silently.  The 'we' I knew was coming
then,
though I didn't know how short of a time it would last.

Sex.  Her on top of me, moving in slow, uncertain circles.
Her awkward stance, her fear of bodies.

And these memories come
back
to the one who passed
away
two years now.

The two of us in her bathtub, her breasts framed by soapsuds.
I moved towards her.

Waves.

One small body
of water
coming up
against another, both lost
in the wake left.
 
 

 - C.C. Russell
 
 
 
  

C.C.'s poetry has appeared in or is forthcoming from The New York Quarterly, The Long Island Quarterly, Xconnect, Hazmat Review, Re(verb, and Whiskey Island Magazine among others.  C.C. has a BA in English from the University of Wyoming.
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