Rose the Hat Meets Abra
Jordan Franklin

Well hi there Sweetheart, did you think I wouldn’t notice you?
The mind is my playground after all, thoughts my monkey bars—
I feel the whisper of your eyes on my neck and am curious.
You came to me, sniffed me out amongst the aisles
but I don’t know your name. I spot your face in the glass
door as condensation beads around our conjoined reflections
like wet stars. Our eyes meet though I’d hoped you’d be
harder to hunt—Food is everywhere yet you
are miles away, teasing me—it’d be so easy to break this flimsy
glass. See this hunger you spark in me. See the way my eyes
sharpen their focus over your nose, your lips, the milky clouds
of your gaze—my sweet, be still as I slip my hand past this door
between us—like a plump plum begging to be plucked, let me hold you,
raise your twig of a neck close to my lips—I want to be full.

Jordan E. Franklin is the winner of the 2017 James Hearst Poetry Prize, the 2020 Gatewood Prize and a finalist of the 2019 Furious Flower Poetry Prize. Her works include the collection, when the signals come home (Switchback Books), and a chapbook, boys in the electric age (Tolsun Books).