Love Poem: Lucifer
after Donika Kelly
Nothing approaches a fall
like me. It isn’t the body
but the shout that stays.
I came down with wet eyes,
wild hair, odd wings. Muted
the way windows mute
laughter during rain.
I flew backwards from that glimpse
into how awful goodness is.
What spade should now tend
to my garden of mistakes?
My garden, wedded to the cursive
of its weeds. I sleep in the garage
of love. I have made even the stray
dog leave. You must cut the earth
for me. You must cut the earth.
Louie Leyson is the recipient of a Literary Research and Creation Grant by the Canada Council for the Arts. Their work was awarded a CBC Literary Prize in Nonfiction (2023), long-listed for the CBC Literary Prize in Poetry (2024), and was selected as a semi-finalist for the Nimrod Literary Awards: Pablo Neruda Prize in Poetry (2024). You can find their works in Catapult, The Malahat Review, Stonecoast Review, and elsewhere.
