Susan Michele Coronel

THIS IS HOW YOU TELL THE PERFECT STORY

Wash me in the relief
of your body’s prose, brush
me across the measured 
surface of impossible 
shoulds. Twist me 
into an idiom that discovers 
itself before you do. 

Wonder me away from 
perfunctory days. Sink me
in the saltmarsh, so you 
are not shocked by what rises. 
Serenade me into a soundcloud
that stretches over the cottage 
for careless hours. 

Pour wine and rain 
into the widening ark. 
Watch me wave my frilly back 
as I propose to the universe. 
Heal the trauma of my birth. 
Mend time’s fractures 
with a glance or whisper.

Wait, hold that thought. 
The bluebird’s lament 
has barred us to each other.
An undercurrent of sadness 
holds our fairytale together. 
You are not a god. Your feet 
are as dark as the muddy rain. 

Your mottled fur has a metallic 
scent. Rattle our coats, fever 
the cracks of sunlight’s residue.
Invite the ghosts to pray for us. 
The smallness of our confusion.
There’s nothing more necessary 
than the ease of this night. 

Susan Michele Coronel is a poet and educator based in New York City. She has a B.A. in English from Indiana University-Bloomington and M.S. Ed. in Applied Linguistics from the City University of New York. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in publications including The Night Heron Barks, Prometheus Dreaming, One Art Poetry, TAB Journal, North Dakota Quarterly, Ekphrastic Review, and Passengers Journal.