Luke Johnson
Image by Leandro Lopes on Pexels
Luke Johnson lives on the California coast with his wife and three kids. His poems can be found at Kenyon Review, Florida Review, Narrative, Cortland Review, Thrush, Palette, Nimrod, and elsewhere.
The Undoing
Jacob leaves a stick of sage
smoldering on an abalone ashtray
& skims his hand across a bath
filled with dahlia,
their copper flames sinking
as the steam furls them under
like smashed faces,
fastens them to the tile.
He thinks of the boy he beat
with a stick by the barn
the boy who nearly died
the day his daddy
found him fondling men
beneath the bleachers
for forty dollars
& tied him to a tree
all night in wretched rain
the river frothing close.
Jacob unsnaps his belt
unties his boots, pulls
his pants below the waist
& stands
in front of a foggy mirror
to hold his flaccid cock.
He slackens his jaw
teethes his tongue
mutters the name
of the boy who begged
barely able to breathe.
Outside the snow has fallen
& the sky chalked
& black ice barreled
stubborn dogwoods, rooting
for warmth underfoot.
Jacob empties himself.
Submits into the salted bath
to freely float unbodied
& begins to weep, his wails
a wounded mare.
The sort that goes on and on
as it’s picked apart by birds
then spilled into the sequined snow,
the wind a volley of echoes.
©2022 West Trade Review
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