No matter where they are,
on a kitchen counter,
paper plate, or a bowl,
they find a way toward
love, spooning in bunches,
growing old together,
their bodies getting spots
as they soften, swollen
from neck to tip, waiting
to be picked up, the slight
curvature of their lives,
as in parentheses
that are always open,
tender hooks made of flesh.
Robert Fillman is the author of House Bird (Terrapin Books, 2022) and the chapbook November Weather Spell (Main Street Rag, 2019). He has received prizes from Sheila-Na-Gig online, Third Wednesday, and The Twin Bill for select poems. He has been a finalist for the Cider Press Review Book Award, the Gerald Cable Book Award, the Sandy Crimmins Prize in Poetry, and the Ron Rash Award in Poetry.