Recess.

Recess

i.
leave what cannot be carried

ii.
this coupling: steam, cool water
trickle of sighs
press     nipple   palm     arc
ask       warm     wrists   grasp
press     pubes    pulse    need
nestle    breathe  breasts  yes
breaking  trace    waking   yes
waking to her: my belly taut,
lift and shiver. there, too!
sing the body chords
lengthening to fill
space between seizure and air

iii.
who raises the latch?
who waits at the sill?

iv.
meadow
woodland cottage
stained glass sky

the gate is open
  doors behind mirrors
  mirrors behind doors

roughhousing
no holes barred
no seed unspent

small men
smaller boy
  scuffed       frayed       vanishing

manhood pouched sticky in his fist
cloud-milk mixed in blood
    difficult words:
    splayed rectum

       quiver

             kiss

v.

who sees what bubbles from the ground?
who fastens the shutter?

a simple choreography

necessity
        beckons
               comes

Duriel E. Harris, a graduate of Yale and NYU, holds her doctorate from the University of Illinois. Her manuscript DRAG has been a finalist for several first-book prizes, and her writing has most recently appeared in Step Into a World, Works & Days, nocturnes, and Fence. Currently at work on Sorna, a sound recording, she has received grants from the Cave Canem Foundation and the Chicago Bar Association. Harris is the Poetry Editor for Obsidian III, a co-founder of Black Tool Collective, and the recipient of a 2002-2003 Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship.