Lancelot, In Darkness

After Louise Gluck
 
I fed the secret anything it asked for,
I wore secret across my chest like fur,
I tried to return secret like Judas with
his coins – no take backs.
 
You carved the word into trees and
now you cover it in vines. You
behave as if it’s not a part of us.
 
Once your body peeled open to cradle me.
 
I sucked a splinter from your thumb and
that was close enough to love.
 
I can still hear
our bodies rustling against the sheets, shaking thunder from the sky,
and the question of why ringing like a telephone.
 
 

Hannah Wagner is a resident of Salem, Massachusetts. She graduated from Salem State University. She is also an actor and can be seen in many productions across the North Shore. Her work has been featured in Mass Poetry’s Poem of the Moment, Soundings East, Twyckenham Notes, Still Point Quarterly, Ghost City Review, Incessant Pipe, and others. She has an always aching sweet tooth – among her favorites is The Holy Donut in Portland, ME -a truly religious food experience.

 … return to Issue 11.3 Table of Contents.