Instrument
I want to hum my
tongue over your strings,
coaxing them in from silence.
Tuning is a persistent friction.
How delicately I listen,
adjust, stoop to try
again, again. A quiet room.
You sing warm yeast,
pale warmth. Listen: the air
perfect for melody.
Emanate
Haven’t you ever set a pat of butter
on a lover’s arm, watched it glisten-slip a trail
of succulence down? A blonde promise
to spill—warmth a supple spread and fall.
Praise the womb-warmth of my lover’s
patience. Praise the body’s curious shine.
The skin-hushed heat that softens
and oils us open. Praise the ongoing loss
to our world that is staying alive.
Every motion given to us we must give back
with cooling arms. Praise, praise.
Katherine Indermaur is the author of the chapbook Pulse (Ghost City Press, 2018). Tommy Pico selected her poem “Girl Descends Asunder” as the winner of the Black Warrior Review 2019 Contest. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Calamity, Colorado Review, Entropy, Frontier Poetry, Ghost Proposal, the Hunger, New Delta Review, Oxidant|Engine, Sugar House Review, and elsewhere. She holds a BA from UNC-Chapel Hill and an MFA from Colorado State University, where she won the 2018 Academy of American Poets Prize. She lives in Salt Lake City.