Champagne Saber
by Skylar Alexander
I got nothing when the music is easy
& slow / I’m all about the rough patches
& the weep / never the easy sweep of
feel good / I’m so roughrustic / so dropkick
& shudder /
I’ll try / but I’m a mess / without
my champagne saber / but there’s still time
tonight / so belt out a song exploding
you underwhelming miracle / tonight
our veins laced / with champagne /
I have never
danced with a city / I did not love / but
tonight I am not me / I am a body lost
in the fog of bass & treble / & I tremble
before you / my beautiful
Creeping Charlies / at last /
at last / I am
a faceless ghost / funeral shrouded
in sorority black / my eyes half smoke
half glass / I’m a chameleon thrashing
dropping low / leaping high / I am so high
my heart beats at its cage / & I seize
so hard to keep / my brooding a-brooding when
I’m a body in motion /
so let’s keep time
tonight / with citrus rinds / put matches
to our tongues / strike oil / strike gold
we’re Georgia hot / iron & periodic
mess on the table / I’m all revolution
& quarry when I see you on the edge
of a heartbeat / I’m all skin & earthquake
when you leap