after ansel elkins
unhook his gaze
from hers unappetite the lust
burning in his belly dislocate
the heat of his heavy limbs
unpin his shadow from her
silhouette peel his prickly pubic
from under her hip undress
her skin, the stench of his salt unglisten
his sweat from her eye unclot
her cold blood on the bed sheet
and send it back to the heart. unfasten
his fingers from her esophagus return
every choked vein that screamed
against his grasp, return every silent swallow
to her throat, return every stop he pushed
into her pulse, return every stop
his ears neglected every no
every please she begged like a prayer
under him return the blood
bleach the bed sheet back
to white repaint the night
a kinder color uncolor
the memory from her mind
return the girl her sanity
return the boy's hands
to his sides return the boy
to his mother return the sin
back to god return the sin back
to god
Unsavage the Boy by Nicole Adabunu | Pink Peony Poetry Reed Diffuser
$15.00Price
Nicole Adabunu is an MFA Poetry graduate from The Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is a 2024 Cave Canem Fellow, and her work has been published or is forthcoming in Poetry Magazine, The Academy of American Poets, The Drift Magazine, and elsewhere. She currently lives and writes in Illinois.
