I have been thinking about your lips
since four this morning.
What will the morning say
when it gestures with your dark and slender hands?
Why are the firemen ringing their bells
and swinging their ladders?
Explanation would only signal
a caution easy to ignore,
while I must make so many decisions
about your lips like salted butter, like sunburn.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 22, Issue 2.
John Whalen was born in Michigan, grew up in Tennessee, and lives now in Spokane, Washington. His has published one book of poetry, Caliban, from Lost Horse Press and three chapbooks, including Above the Pear Trees, which won the 2014 Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award.
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