Touch of Air

Photographer - Tobi Brun

Touch of Air

In floats and waves, to a sedge
of six sandhill cranes overflying
in a four-cycle chortle—I attempt
to imitate their calls from marsh
perch, warmed in my comforter,
in my own bed, but tongue won’t
curl around sound—and you say
you want to cuddle, falling into fog
—so, I massage your thigh, once
severed, bone cut, implanted,
gusseted like foul, sagging in a bog
of depression that warms turkeys;
we respond to healing as a touch
of air: simple needs that sound
so far away, as cranes massaging
breezes, waves of sound, hormones,
your breath becoming more assertive,
from your mouth, convulsed, as you
turn, raise yourself up, and—in this
moment—grasp, spring, to nose
upward and interpret, as if to fly.  

Jan Wiezorek writes from Michigan. His work appears, or is forthcoming, in The London Magazine, The Westchester Review, Lucky Jefferson, Loch Raven Review, Minetta Review, Talon Review, Modern Poetry Review, The Passionfruit Review, Sparks of Calliope, The Wise Owl, Poetry Center San José, and The Orchards Poetry Journal, among other journals. He taught writing at St. Augustine College, Chicago, and wrote the ebook Awesome Art Projects That Spark Super Writing (Scholastic, 2011). He posts at janwiezorek.substack.com.