Chickasaw, Alabama
Stuff me with magnolias
and snakeroot. Give me
a hickey like the one on Jupiter.
Shove me off Dauphin Island,
into the bend of a hurricane.
Strike me with lightning bites.
You are the hammer
that tempers the steel of me.
Your fingers hook below
my back, and yank out howls.
Give me locker room glimpses,
the pre-shower unwrap of the towel.
Give me your grin, your heaves
below my ribs, your nails in my thighs.
Hand me your toolshed key,
your church-belled hours.
Keep me always
tucked inside your cheek.
Brian Czyzyk is a poet and writer from Northern Lower Michigan. Currently a senior English Writing student at Northern Michigan University, he works as a tutor at the university’s writing center, and as a Senior Editor for the undergraduate literary journal Ore Ink Review. His work has been published in or is forthcoming from Portage Magazine, Dunes Review, Indiana Review Online, Assaracus, Harpur Palate and elsewhere. He wishes you the best.
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