Ann DeVilbiss

SHELTER IN PLACE

Safe from the acid sky
under thick canopy I wait
for you to come back.

Sweat creeps its shiver
down my neck, blots
humid into my cotton shift.

This future is damp with
heat, dangerous water.
What I scrabble from

earth is mine to keep,
our rough hands, how
they echo gentle still,

your body a mandolin
strung with my heart.

Ann DeVilbiss has work published or forthcoming in Columbia Journal, Gertrude, The Laurel Review, The Maine Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, PANK, Radar, and elsewhere. She lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky.