wild is the wind

Day by day I am made
to face it: that you and I are only
wind, nodding first by the oak’s huge
muscle, then to a dandelion-head,
bending, as would water, bent—
and that’s it: this wind that won’t . . .

So for

your warmth, your I-am-alive purr, I pull
to my body yours: let it brace and cover mine,
baby-in-cradle, mouth-to-chest. I give
to these acts of submission, yes,
a face of dominance, a face like—.

See how river moves

to wind’s desire, water obedient to its vision—or seeming that way?
What if water refuses to be blown? (Baby, let it.)

–RICKEY LAURENTIIS

Rickey Laurentiis was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. The recipient of fellowships from the Cave Canem Foundation, the Atlantic Center for the Arts as well as a scholarship from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, his manuscript has received an honorable mention in the 2010 Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award and was a finalist for the 2011 National Poetry Series. Individual poems have appeared or are forthcoming in several journals, including Indiana Review, jubilat, Knockout Literary Magazine, Callaloo and Alaska Quarterly Review. Currently, Rickey is pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing at Washington University in St Louis where he is a Chancellor’s fellow.