Touch Me Not by Dana Curtis


 
 
I hand you a bucket of
light, and you pass me
night on a stick while
I make a home near
the collapsed merry-go-round
holding each faded
horse against my body. You live
in some cave nearby lecturing
me on integrity and water –
perfect like broken
bones by the river.
We row through the abandoned
docks and mirrors. There is
so much pleasure here, so
many illusions and rumors:
careful with what we have
made into chimes.
 
 
 
Dana Curtis’ third full-length collection of poetry, Wave Particle Duality, was recently published by blazeVOX Books. Her second collection, Camera Stellata, was published by CW Books, and her first book, The Body’s Response to Famine, won the Pavement Saw Press Transcontinental Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in such publications as Hotel Amerika, Indiana Review, Colorado Review, and Prairie Schooner. She has received grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the McKnight Foundation. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Elixir Press and lives in Denver Colorado.