Page 10 - Contrast1981Springv24

Inside an apartment, BALTIMORE

crowded among buildings The evening sun
surrounded by walls and hangs orange like
tall wooden gates a 5-ball about to
lining narrow streets drop behind jagged
where slot cars maneuver and hazy skycrapers.
past an old woman
walking down the sidewalk The yellow streetlights
toward the stairs to the trains come on and steal the street
which roll through the night from the sky, turning the
and shelter the poor world upside down.
from the snow that falls Shards of a green bottle
over the city of Paris, shine like stars.

two friends enjoy Paul Elliot
warm bread wrapped in cloth
and a bottle of wine BLUE VEINS
chilled on a snowy windowsill.
I trace my finger
Michael Easley along the course of the veins
in your arm.
Enclosed in blackness
I would only be able
to feel their ridges
and not marvel at
the contrast between blue vein
and tan skin.

Enclosed in blackness
you arch against me
and push closer,
making us unnatural
Siamese twins.
I pull closer
and try to erase
all signs of the twins.

I don't have to see
your veins.
I can feel
their blue tracks.
In the dark,
ridges feel more
than colors.

Alice Krempasky

Cindy Keefer

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