Catie McGuire

I roll back into Arizona, single and pale

unfolding the delphiniums into porcelain

deep heat, white flower—

I believed in cracking webs into the ceramic sink

before finding remedy in Montana pastures.

I forgave your making of my hummingbird skin

blue petals blurring the tender green layer.

I let longing dehydrate in clay-basin appetite,

wild mustard water hardening into honey,

bruises healing, bitter sweetening.

—I returned to Arizona;            delphiniums unfolded,         china petrified.

You stared from the porch;                    kiln knuckles curled,             temper

unchanged.

Catie McGuire is an English major and is currently a junior at SUNY Geneseo. She originally hails from New Jersey and her preferred genre is poetry.