My hand spread along
the sun-warmed width
of your thigh. It’s there
not to hold you back,
nor to claim you, though
it looks so. It’s the heat
I relish—my flat palm,
five fingers—star fish
at home in the tide pool.
How everything beyond
our water line shrivels me
to brittle. The unguarded
clutch of a starfish
under the sun in her bath—
anyone could pry it
from its stone, grab my
hand, pull me away from
you. Even you. So don’t.
M. Nasorri Pavone’s poetry has appeared in River Styx, Sycamore Review, New Letters, The Cortland Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, GHLL, Cura, Rise Up Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Chaparral, Poemeleon, Wild Goose Review, The Citron Review, Packingtown Review, The Broadkill Review, Rhino, and others. She’s been anthologized in Beyond the Lyric Moment (Tebot Bach, 2014), and has been nominated for Best of the Net and twice for a Pushcart Prize.
