Wick Effect

by E.C. Belli

You called me all flanks and napes
You called me off
To the cashmere moon
This winter is unusually cold I am told
Every winter in the wake
Of embittered zambonis
Who doubtless run the weather
Out of town with their little mechanisms
And fangs and bayonets
I was waiting for a word like hemispheres
To break my skin
What are you these days
Still contorted in the afterglow
Still missing the parade
Strauss combing your hair

E.C. Belli’s poetry and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in Guernica, Gulf Coast, Hayden’s Ferry Review, FIELD, The Antioch Review, Caketrain, Western Humanities Review, Cerise Press, Spoon River Poetry Review, The Dalhousie Review, Mid-American Review and The Florida Review among others.