Bailey Cohen-Vera

After Walking Out of The Tub, I Turn Around & See You

scrubbing between your toes with a towel

thinned into a bristle some parts of your

skin made into the red of a desert sunset

by the water’s soft heat you could have tip-

toed through a path I dripped & only wet

your heels slightly the tiles bruised damp

by my too wrinkled feet what small breaths

of yours I could nonetheless manage to hear

still delighted me the sweet song of your throat

shimmering through thick mist marred air

the song was the same color as your breath

grey as a newborn wolf cub’s bright fur

I assume the towel’s strands were mudded

with soap like another beast I could have licked you

clean myself I could have drunk

the tub dry swallowed you without notice

or maybe care stop it now I’m making us

blush I’m making us look silly & saturated under

the harsh white light poached & pruned every ripple

a declaration of our ugly deliciousness stupid blunder

of a man I could have devoured you for hours

Rumination on Black Holes

Some things sound too silly to be true, like my believing the story
of a purplehaired
man, one in which a nun

invents barbed wire. Can you imagine the state of her
fingers? She’d never be able
to pray! Far away black holes make even light holy;

all the while I eat my apple & talk my shit. Pigeons & I gossip
in the square. They’re like have you tried this new bread & I’m all sorry

my species took so much of your home
away that you are evolving in the sky's opposite direction!
They walk among the sparrows that hop, they peck

at the crumbs I should not be feeding them. Lollygagging about
even the clouds weep on me. The significance of my sins

inversely correlated with their abundance. I'm trying
to convince myself things matter by shouting things matter!

at little puddles. & when the purplehaired man puts his tongue in my ear, I
giggle, knees knobbed & dreamfence unpicketed, & we do what we can

to dizzy ourselves in the morning of course of course of course / lovingly
I consider myself tragically, partially, primarily because I do

care, I do
care, or at least I care enough
to be aware of my own unmattering??? I'm mostly adorable
if not incredibly dull. How many sparrows flew out of the sky today? Are

we so self-important to have created a heaven? If I were to close my eyes,
would I know if, even for a minute, the world stopped in its passing by?

Sonnet 

Boys will be boys / will be toys /
will be coy / will annoy / will em
-ploy / will deploy / will convoy / 
will destroy / will destroy / will destroy / 
will eat bok choi / will drink la croix / 
will wear corduroys / will fall in love
with helen of troy / with troy / with bus
-boys / playboys / high boys / bought
boys / not-boys / mama’s boys /
sailor boys / backroom boys / boys
from Illinois / Iroquois boys / unemp-
loyed boys / all-alone boys / cry
-ing-out boys / all-cried-out boys / 
will be sad boys / will feel joy boys