Revelation
I love you.
In the hushed half light, as darkness bows in deference to day,
I hear the words for the first time.
Voiced quietly against my back.
raw, uncloaked, confessional.
I don’t move.
Joy jolts my cortex.
The glow spreads like brandy gulped on a dare.
Intoxication immediate, rendering temperance
foreign and foolish.
Infinite calculations are proofed in the space of an inhalation.
A plan firm on exhale:
Give no sign of rousing.
I view her declaration a rehearsal:
She is hearing how the words form in her mouth,
feeling them hover and navigate.
Mapping liminal space.
My body forms shelter for her secrets.
In mendacious slumber,
spine and scapula bear silent witness.
Welcoming ardent confession.
I remember only scattered threads of her second– and formal– declaration.
Perhaps it was conquered by a whisper.
Crouching in the grey, having carved
its crest into the bones of my back, it renders future
incantations colorless
and mortal.
With neither blade nor battalion,
I am, yet, felled
Eddie Hollis Edwards (She/Her) is a gender non-conforming lesbian poet living in Austin Texas. She has 3 children and is active in several area poet communities in including hosting The Island of Misfit Poets queer poetry open mike at Birdhouse Books and performing regularly at Every Word Poetry at the Vortex, The I Scream Social at Alienated Majesty Books, Austin Poetry Slam at Barrel of Fun, and storytelling events such as Queer to Tell, Campfire Queer Storytelling and Queer Film Theory. Discretionary Love marks her forth publication acceptance.
