Kyle Valentine: It Is You

DON’T THINK TWICE

In the end we won’t need our bodies.

Umbrellas, the genesis of storms,

Crow after crow after crow.

For now, let’s steal flakes of moon

From the sleepless jaws

Of god’s coyotes,

Let’s entangle in the downpour

Beneath the final oak,

Every droplet every life

We could have but never lived.

Let me remember—are you

The television I dream of

Plummeting through the ether?

Are you the locusts stridulating

In the Molotov light of my last film?

All of this, my opulence.

All of this. It is you.

The wishes I’ve stolen

Are all that keep me warm.

Let me claw at your heart

Because I know

There lies a kingdom

I could die in.

---

Kyle Valentine is the recipient of a Fulbright, and he is currently working on his first chapbook, Glossolalia. His work has recently been published in Whiskey Island, Visitant, Rock & Sling, Construction, and elsewhere. A native New Orleanian, he currently resides in San Antonio, TX where he plays lead guitar in the rock & roll band The Holy Knives. You can check out their music and follow their tours at www.theholyknives.com