slow, slow diving, dream drunk, dance-grinding to congas in smoke blue when Jane says, I never been in love, I don’t know what it is…I only know they want me. We’re not sorry. We want skin--B’s thighs--C’s lips kissing over what is worn. HB on the corner, throwing quarters at a bum with a ladder in front of the bar, 3 A.M. screaming: you’re not my father, we just want more out of stolen things: i-pods, credit cards, your eyes cried on my shoulders--days like nods, maps like light shaken off a crumbling billboard. Our translations of reruns--handshakes, drugs. Trash and trees that shred in the spring rain. Why forget the lines in my hands? They will hold you rough in the politics of touch--drown down your arms, breasts, and navel. You will never be held tighter. You won’t be lonely. I can’t let go. My friends are all fucked-up, messed-up: broken windows--chain-links like addictive moons, carved on L’s thin arm--F riding a used bike in the California rain/sun. W mourning the sad look of porn stars--Belfast murals--the man sawing horns from cattle below a cliff in Donnegal. Forgive us--road signs and the dead. Your mouth is a car wreck. I throw my tired breath to your glass and write I run over and over--the hazed transcription of fingertips--the space between us always and bright and far too long. I will carry you over the glass, dancing.

And we will only remember homeless singing. Manuals, schedules, a place we cut our name in the soft, wet bark. A place where weeds toss like rummaged embroidery--chrysanthemums cremated by winter frost.

What if, the syllables of your skin, below mine

starting to slow dive

wanting, in everything we touch.

Corey Zeller has published work in elimae, 3 am, and Poetry East, among others. He currently attends Penn State Erie where he serves as the poetry editor for Lake Effect.

Benjamin Barbour studies Political Science at Boston University. He has been involved with all aspects of photography for eight years now, working in both digital and print mediums. In 2005 he won an Honorable Mention in the Maine Photographic Workshops' International Photography Awards. Most recently, he completed a portfolio of his experiences living in Ireland.