Deeper Wells

Kelly Forsythe

First published in Salt Hill 41 (2018).

I built a fire for you with oil
gathered atop a lake

it rippled like a lung gasping,
we caught the fumes &

thickened our throats
with their resin, leapt to

& from a dock into each
other’s sincere embrace—

the summer was our secret
cavern, turning darker

with each step to
& from each other.

I avoided your Ouija board
because of the demons—not

in life but those outside it

& after, green eyes growing
neon after each

glance at algae
in the dark basin; or

we grew powerful staring
into its anger

fixing our beds in
the shadow of its ripples

which washed ashore
like roses after a funeral

did you hear us at night?
we wrapped our hands

in water, and kept calm
like madonnas of pine

but in the mornings
we grew

Kelly Forsythe is the author of Perennial (2018). Her work has been published in Black Warrior Review, The Literary Review, The Minnesota Review, and Columbia Poetry Review, among others. Forsythe was the director of publicity for Copper Canyon Press for over half a decade and is the founder of Phantom Books, an online literary journal and chapbook press.