They put their mouths up to the heavens, which, by and by brief imaginings, doth take away by Todd Melicker

 
 
my mouth
pressed to

innocence, my
mouth

pressed to
heaven

or none
or

few, a cold
washed ash

could a
cold choir

wash in
fire—

the palm
of my

tongue walks
through

the earth, spills
from leaves

as could they
encase
 
 
Todd Melicker regularly communes with the fog of San Francisco’s Outer Richmond. ‘rendezvous’, his first full length collection, was published by Rescue Press in 2013. His work can also be found in VOLT, jubilat, and Verse.