Geothermal
The Meadow Journal, 2023
Once we lived
on the bottom half of the world.
It was summer
there, and we were falling
apart. We were happy
when drinking and our children
happy in the water heated by the veins
of a volcano. Their bodies
in the refraction, magnified
like my love for the things
they adore: a meringue
on the tongue, small dogs
in sweaters, bites of steak still red
in the middle. You didn’t know
I wanted to leave you, and they
didn’t know. It was so quiet
under the steaming water. I kept
going down to listen
to nothing. Soon everyone waiting
on shore. I came up
to breathe and beg, Please,
just one more time.