Heat Rises

He said maybe if she wore more makeup
less makeup a lift-up bra a red dress
got a lift a tuck an implant
got hot got fucked 
then maybe he said maybe he could 
but even then he might be too aware
of the limits & here 

he drew a line between them 
that could have been a wall 
or the outline of a coffin 

by then she had started to cry 
not out of weakness
but rage that he could hold himself
so apart & think of her
as something needing work
like an old house or bed
or the poem she kept writing 
called “Heat” where what she wanted
to say kept coming out wrong
because she was trying to ignore
the truth that even if they were skeletal
he’d still be making her over

so one morning when he woke
& reached for her she rose like heat 
beyond his reach 

Lynne Knight | The Invisible
Contents | Mudlark No. 62 (2017)