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.