Starting Out Together in West Virginia, and: Running Away, and: Full Moon, Black Night
Rent from DeepDyve- Starting Out Together in West Virginia, and: Running Away, and: Full Moon, Black Night
STARTING OUT TOGETHER IN WEST VIRGINIA
driving to meet you in that mountain townroad canopied with treessun through, flashesof river running alongside
the way you looked the same felt the same, but an odor on your breath, clothes reeking shell forming around my quivering inside
interplay of green and lightblue silk, the nightgown in my bagbought specially for this
later, laughter and loud music dances with men flashes of jealousy, flashes of guns, your anger carrying me to the rented room
heart racing at rememberingthe planning, hands held acrosssmooth diner tablethe thrill of seeing your carafter all this time [End Page 48]
slap of water under this crude lodge clack of metal, hammer hidden under your thumb blue silk flying, steel cold and smooth at my temple please…please finish finally, maybe you'll sleep
gurgle of water, nip of nightrush of wind blowing my hair
gun set aside, you breathe heavy at last I breathe, I can leave now still I lie next to you as day breaks [End Page 49]
RUNNING AWAY
Without a mother's advice, I gatherwhat I'll need. At a store in townI look for something with appealfor an experienced man. A nightgown–silk is supposed to be sexy.The clerk is Rob Foster's mother.Her teenaged son I have dated now and then.She tells me as she rings the sale abouthis college girlfriend, about their visitplanned for spring. I say nothing,knowing I'll be gone. [End Page 50]
FULL MOON, BLACK NIGHT
Solemn moon between two hills,mounds of deep blue turned black by night.Along the ridge a cavalry in silhouette–spruce, pine. Moon fixed in reliefon a sky greyed with stripes.Lone star, grip of heaven. [End Page 51]
Julia Campbell Johnson received an MFA in Creative Writing from American University. Her poems have appeared in Potomac Review, Southern Poetry Review, and Poet Lore, among others. Her chapbook, The Tea of the Unforeseen Berry, was published by Finishing Line Press. She is a Fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
