These young poets on love: you’d think it was all in the hands, the pivot and slide, necks, beds, beads of sweat and sweet cum’s perfumes— which it is, though we have other things to tell them. Above the door, the clock needs a battery. A cloak of dust dulls the framed couple. A sink of dishes waits for bare hands. I dare them to include electricity bills, evening meetings with teachers, trips to the emergency room, the fifth inning again, the dryer tumbling, and grass that never stops growing. Oh, it is also night, the children asleep and the bedsprings singing and the Lord’s name taken wholly and lusciously in vain.
(This poem is available in our store as a broadside signed by the author.)
Matthew Murrey’s poems have appeared in many journals such as Prairie Schooner, Poetry East, and Rise Up Review. He received an NEA Fellowship in Poetry a number of years ago, and his debut poetry collection, Bulletproof, selected by Marilyn Nelson, was published in February 2019 by Jacar Press. Murrey is a high school librarian in Urbana, Illinois, where he lives with his partner. They have two adult sons. His website is at www.matthewmurrey.net
