Multiple Man: Guest-starring me & You

By Gary Jackson

Every night I sleep on alternate

sides of the bed, as if to duplicate

sleeping with you. If

I’m fast enough, I’m the warmth

of my own body beside me, reach

out and touch myself. Breach

the blue of my bones, breath in my own ear.

You left me. Lying here,

I left you to be with me.

Someone asks if your body

was worth trading for mine.

My sin was always pride.

Did you want a man who sleeps

with himself to keep

the bed warm? I need you like the earth

needed the flood after dearth.

Copyright Credit: Poem copyright ©2021 by Gary Jackson, “Multiple Man: Guest-starring me & You” from origin story (University of New Mexico Press, 2021).