• HOME
  • ISSUES
  • ABOUT
  • SUBMIT

FOUR WAY REVIEW

C. T. Salazar is a Latinx poet and librarian from Mississippi. His debut full-length collection, Headless John the Baptist Hitchhiking, is forthcoming in 2022 from Acre Books. He’s the author of three chapbooks, most recently American Cavewall Sonnets (Bull City Press 2021). He’s 2020 the recipient of the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award in poetry. His poems have recently appeared in The Rumpus, Beloit Poetry Journal, and the Cincinnati Review. Photo credit: Rachel Guerry

SIX ECCLESIASTICAL LOVE SONGS by C. T. Salazar

Friday, 13 November 2020 by C. T. Salazar

            heaven is a compound 
            word 
                        the sun sunders
            us dazzling
            so you don’t have to
            wonder what wound
            I’m showing



                        :::

                        heaven-heavy 

                        like 
                        a cello’s hello—

                                    / heaven-heavy

                        like an animal fond of its own 

                        fur.

 

                                                :::

                                                A cello’s hollow
                                                that’s what it felt like

                                                breathing with you
                                                in the dark



            :::

            heaven is a compound

                        but not the one we’re in

            we were called heathens in another myth
            hello       whatever wound we answer to now



            :::

            the language of electricity was
                        the language of prophets

            a conduit for the power to pass through
                        I’m all steeple at your lightning

            let us tremble cellos
                        at your touch

 

                        :::

                        the river knowing which way to go

                        without any godspeed to spill

                        heaven: clouds marigolding softly

 

            :::

            birds drones butterflies a jug

                        of water               anything

            could get over that fence

 

Read more
  • Published in Issue 19, Uncategorized
No Comments


    TOP