One More Favor

Preening heart I have tendedlike a weak flame on the beach,do you have a box or bag(the tearing aside for a moment)to purse our decay? Becausewe have been degrading for a while now.We need something flexiblebut sturdy, something stains will not ruin.Or a couple of good tight sutures.Opposing growler to whom I have concededso often by rolling onto my backlike the weaker wolf,can you bracket my doubtfulnessor dissipate my fumes while I fingerthe arms of my chair? Becausethere’s a pigment without a namethat threatens to permanently tint it all,a calcium tang that stalks our tastes and breaths.We’ve run out of room for notches on the foyer wall.Perhaps, my precious clutter, let us recastour likeness in plastic and endure as timeless litter.Or, here I will beg you again for a flush,to swallow hard, to shove some of your fistsinto pockets, before we hit that interludeso much longer and obscurer than simple night,onrushing like a steering columnin the accident we never saw coming.____Shanna Compton's books include For Girls & Others (2007), Down Spooky (2005), Gamers (2004), and several chapbooks. Her third and fourth poetry books are forthcoming from Bloof Books as a two-volume project; a collection called Brink in fall 2012, and a book-length speculative poem called The Seam in spring 2013. For more, please visit shannacompton.com.