While We Waited
Rent from DeepDyve- While We Waited
When given the skyexpect rain. The days unspooled
like a newspaperwith no news. We listened for the phone.
Morning frost burnedinto a phantom steam and night spun
on its own blacktread. I moved from room to room,
beneath bannersof uncertainty. The body knows hope
is a lonely secret.I kept my secrets. We both did,
rolling overto face the wall. Chemo sick, I read
encyclopedias,learning mud sharks eat their siblings
in utero. Killingtime can be an agony. You took up
smoking just to rememberwhat it felt like to crave. We watched
the clockand all the private space in-between
one numberand the next. Distant wildfires turned [End Page 24]
the moon red.I slept with my hair unwashed
in borrowed socks.You slept in another room. Raccoons
scratched at our trashcanand the crickets moaned. When given
hunger expect morehunger. Our bodies in the dark.
Our bodies alone. [End Page 25]
Kristene Kaye Brown is a mental health social worker. She earned her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has previously been published or is forthcoming in DIAGRAM, Harpur Palate, Nashville Review, Nimrod, and others. She lives and works in Kansas City.
