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Paul Ilechko

Fill the Silence

The summer silence     a dry hostility

within the crackling whiteness of glare

 

I stand there lost in tenderness     all

cropped and shaven in my frequency

 

once     you kissed my fingerprints     stole

them from my hands as I caressed you

 

I later heard you’d left them in the trash

no longer having use for them

 

and this is why my hands are smothered

in heavy wool     even on a summer day

 

when sweat runs down my neck

and pools     salty and tasting of blood

 

at the base of my spine     as I lift

my arms     and point my covered fingers

 

at the trees    dragging from the throats

of birds     a song of rarest melancholy.

Paul Ilechko is the author of three chapbooks, most recently “Pain Sections” (Alien Buddha Press). His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including Rogue Agent, San Pedro River Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Book of Matches and The Banyan Review. He lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ.

Paul Ilechko
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