THIS DUSK IN A MOUTH FULL OF PRAYER
Michael Wasson

When you came
                                            into my mouth
           opened wide enough
 
to forget
                                  how to swallow
 
light: this surrendering
 
                                    the body is my skin
 
tracing starved beauty
                                             in climax: us
 
lying in the dark
                                    shadow of another
        lord: give me your dying
 
words like father
                                             or my tongue
 
disappearing before
                                          you: welík’ipckse
so tell me this
 
when you’ve forgotten
                                             how to open
 
your lips into my name --
 
                                       father: which is
another way to say shadow:
 
failed daylight
                                        you say: the sky
 
touching the body: I
                                        find myself entering

a night again wounded
                 enough for the snow--
 
shined with moon
— to reorder the stars with
our faces: broken

                through with so many

American mouths: like
                                        ghosts singing
 
the very last bright word they
​remember:                       amen.

I write about this fantastic poem (and compare it to the super erotic opening lines of a Louise Erdrich poem) in a collaborative interview CMarie Fuhrman and I did with Arthur Kayzakian for Poetry International