Odysseus does not come to bed. He spends his nights
looking at jars; gestures of a hand job from a topless
siren. The image poorly drawn, her fingers resemble
weapons. He will sleep when we rise. I’ve learned
to treasure his distance—it gives room in our bed
for a child. I watch my son on the brink of waking—
how his whole self tumbles in waves of breath—
completely taken with sleep—his face pulses
without muscle to mask the mechanics of life.
Oh, this is love for the loveless. I no longer
feel like I am waiting. As a witness, I am
alive—even if my husband treats me
as though I’m made of death.
Nicelle Davis lives in Southern California with her son J.J. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Broadsided, Front Range, FuseLit, Mosaic, ML Press, The New York Quarterly, Offending Adam, SLAB Magazine, SLAB, Two Review, and others. She’d like to acknowledge her poetry family at the University of California, Riverside and Antelope Valley Community College. She runs a free online poetry workshop at The Bees’ Knees Blog and is an assistant poetry editor of Connotation Press.