Rivka Clifton
The Body Loves to Fly Peak to Peak All Through the Night
The body
loves
to fly.
To peek
through
the night
I knit
my body
through
my love.
The peaked
legs of a fly
like a fly
unzippered. Nightly
I peeked
into my body—
what loves
came through,
and through
this flight
I came to love
knitting
a body
to peak.
To peek
through
the body
as it flies,
the night
turned a lover
on a lover.
Now, I speak
night
fluently. I threw
my palm at a fly’s
body.
My body was loved.
It flew peak to peak
all through the night.
All That She Wants
The gentle voice
is tucked away
but talks forever.
The lonely want
a boy,
want the gone.
The gentle voice
wants another
and another and
to talk forever.
It talks forever.
A gone boy is a way
to talk with
another’s mouth.
A gone boy
is tucked
away. In sight,
a flashing,
a voice
says goodbye.
A night
is gone.
A boy talks
she and has fun.
The day
just began.
Then like a boy,
the day
was gone.
Then tomorrow
talked. Then
tomorrow shed
its passionate
loneliness—
a fox funneling
out of another’s
gentle mouth.
B Rivka Clifton (she/her) is the transfemme author of Muzzle (JackLeg Press) as well as the chapbooks MOT and Agape (from Osmanthus Press). She has work in: Pleiades, Guernica, Black Warrior Review, Colorado Review, and other magazines.