The past tense of me is us. As in
we rode the bed like a ship
in a bottle. A kind of nimbus coloring
the horizon. Nothing to think
but the flow of water bumping
against the box spring. My bed
is covered in books my daughter
has read, is reading, hasn’t read yet.
It used to be stuffies and peppermints.
A soft blanket for scary nights.
My sheets are clean. There’s no one
to make them dirty. We never spent
as much time in bed as we could’ve.
There was always something else
to do. Hoist the sail. Batten the hatches.
We were searching for the island
we wanted to die on. But we never
found it, just glimpses. I’ve seen
dragons and sea serpents. Mermaids
and sirens, singing their lovely songs.
They never sing to me. Not since
you left.

Raised on a rice and catfish farm in eastern Arkansas, CL Bledsoe is the author of more than thirty books, including the poetry collections Riceland, The Bottle Episode, and his newest, Having a Baby to Save a Marriage, as well as his latest novels If You Love Me, You’ll Kill Eric Pelkey and The Devil and Ricky Dan. Bledsoe lives in northern Virginia with his daughter.