Queer Love Poetry Day 6: Studies for a Poem About Seduction by Jill Leininger

Studies for a Poem About Seduction

by Jill Leininger

I. Milkpod
Indiscriminate tips.  Poised on letting go,
the fibrous innards loosen and expel

their white breath with the wind: come
and rest, the marsh’s willing

hush will tuck you in.

 

II. Wool

Walking through the gift shop full
of blankets for other people’s children,

the little animals fascinate us

and you wish aloud for someone to whom
you could give the lamb,

glancing at my belly, which shows
for no good reason

other than to make
you look.
III. Nest

Settle in.  There is a cup to hold
everything.  Yet,

you’re determined to cast more—
as if to say that the possibility of containing

more made more.  My urge
to take you into nature

distracts you from your task,
though never enough;

you’re gathering weeds.

IV. Country

It’s the day of daylight savings,
foreign to you

and your country.  Rocking
on the library veranda, you finger

the Chinese poet’s five-beat bliss.
The sun is on the meadow

and I recognize the name
Lushan, which is closer to you

than this. It’s as if we’d swallowed
that hour, waiting

happily, finding excuses to climb
the green silence.

Is this the country? you ask.  By that time,
I’d have said yes to anything.

 

Jill Leininger’s poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in cream city review, Poetry International, and the Harvard Review Online.  “Roof Picnic Skies, New York,” a chapbook of prose poems, is also available from dancing girl press. Find her on Twitter @congressoffish

Previous Poems:

Queer Love Poetry Day #1: Not Having a Smoke with You by Lillie Craw

Queer Love Poetry Day #2: Two Poems by Blaine Marchand

Queer Love Poetry Day #3: porch kitty & this too by Alysia Angel

Queer Love Poetry Day #4: Kite String and Keys by Blythe Baldwin

Queer Love Poetry Day #5: Valentine to My Unknown Lover by Linda Lenzke