Rose & Thorn Journal  -  Winter 2010

Brian Wilkins is the editor of Scarab: a literary magazine for the iPhone. He is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of New Hampshire. His work can be found or is forthcoming in Two Review and Permafrost, Pure Francis, and Sententia.

Brian Wilkins

 


Absolute Zero

 

Like the first frost

it arrives unannounced.

 

The electron hives within our house

crowd around for warmth

and stop their spinning

 

until these walls, these bricks,

the rebar and the air between

your breast and beating heart

 

slip their tethers--

 

if there's any velocity left

everything will drift like dandelions

 

if not, we'll be floating wisps of lemon

 

no difference between us,

the writing desk, our unwashed dishes.

 

This is why I reached for you in the night--

that some piece of me might stay

 

until we came again as syllables

in gravity's beginning word.





To hear a Brian Wilkins' reading of the poem go to: podcasts

 







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