"Prenup" by Derek Graf

She carries wet berries in reusable bags. 

Along our block the trees burst 

with confessions. Dusk like a knife 

sinking into my gut. Her face appears 

murderous as the sea & my face appears 

murderous as the sea. We replaced surface 

with depth until the truth ruined us. 

Now the ocean buries our children. 

I studied so deep into her history

it became my own. The rain cleans 

her spit from my teeth. I gather her axioms 

and gnaw their bones. Trees, transgressions. 

The priest bends to lick our feet. Love, 

if I’m the impact—you’re the leap. 

Derek Graf's first poetry collection, Green Burial, won the 2021 Elixir Press Antivenom Poetry Award for a First or Second Book of Poetry. Graf's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Journal, Sixth Finch, Meridian, and elsewhere.