Maybe Under Some Other Sky

Ask me, Poet, Did I love her?
Breast against bristle, penny eyes—
I loved Rose the way fours
Exchange blows, the way fractures
Need islands, the way we tremble
In the glow of dead-ass truth
You wanted to stay awake 
Just to see the end with her.

Guardian, gladiator & goon—
Skeleton-to-ash—speak, dead.
Forget, always. Ask me again,
       Did I love her?
With holy-mouth & hard-hand,
I play like I say: Yes. Yes I did. 

Copyright Credit: Willie Perdomo, "Maybe Under Some Other Sky" from The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon. Copyright © 2014 by Willie Perdomo. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Random House LLC.