As if I needed a reminder

It bloomed like a curse
A memory glowing purple and dull
You can’t tend to blood roses
Like curses, you can’t ignore them,
only let them come and go
Like memories, you can touch them,
the softest parts give way
I saw red boxing gloves in your closet
I saw empty tanks of gas
A life I could’ve wanted, a forgettable place
The place I’d give a curse to stay
as it passed through me, late August,
blue becoming yellow

homecoming

dance on the moon
beneath stained glass refractions
A tulip field on fire, a prayer
rug in a love hotel, an angel
sitting in a trashcan, the pain
that never leaves my body,
just changes place:
Speed lap swimmer, lazy river
An opera at the Super Bowl
I ground up my salt lamp
I ate fruit in the dark:
Faceless apples and unnamed pears
I bled on the tollway
Indiana horses ran below
My truck was parked in the cave
under the crystal planetarium
Trampoline at sunset
The same thing, at the same time,
everywhere in nowhere

Adriana Erickson