Saeed Jones

Offers a collection of poems that explore questions of masculinity, sexuality, race, and shifting identity.

Prelude to Bruise

I’ve got more hunger than my body can hold. Bloated with want, I’m the man who waits for the moon to drown before I let the lake grab my ankles & take me into its muddy mouth.

I won’t be forgiven for what I’ve made of myself.

All I’ve ever wanted was to kiss crevices, pry them open, and flourish within dew-slick hollows. How you mistake my affection. If I ever strangled sparrows, it was only because I dreamed of better songs.

(eclipse of my third life) the recurrence of the theme of hunger 

Hunger is who we are under a black lacquered moon. Undone in his flashlit arms, is this my body anymore?

(guilt) very taylor swift right where you left me ish

Five years gone but my body is back in the truck beside you

The roof has been ripped off and the stars refuse to peel their stares from my bruises.

I’ve traded my lungs for fog machines. You won’t breathe tonight without getting high on me.

I wait hours into quarters. Trucks pass, white noise trailing radios like limbs scattered on the road and I am made of waiting.

Prelude to Bruise quotes

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