Poetry,  Published Submissions

Eclipse Occasion, by M.R. Bessac

Today,
I will indulge in eye contact—
Cavernous, sepia, soft (despite any hatred)

 

I get jabbed into sewing
our names into a sandcastle
on the shore of some beach by my
motel in Maui,

 

telling the tide
I could listen to him
shift in his sheets
and snore without missing music—

 

The one hundred
sixty-seven and nineteen cents
I’d spent

 

on a lavish perfume,
showered in it,
he should still smell on his skin—

 

I only got through half the bottle
and she now sits contentedly on a shelf,
scared to be opened.

 

I’d let myself plunge
into the first few weeks
I could barely remember you,
giggling about analogy of the autonomy
of how your hair twisted the same way.

 

In spite of that,
regardless of my search,
I can’t seem to spoil you
with the simplicity of comparison.

 

Comb my hair with your hands, bite my lip
with your sharp teeth. My eyes twinkle.
I touch the arch of your nose, trace
muscles on your back, abrade

 

a trail that leads back to us.

– M.R. Bessac

M.R. Bessac is a writer from Hawaii and Texas. When not writing, she does track and field as a junior in high school. Her poems have been selected for Editor’s Choice in Teen Ink. She enjoys vanilla perfume and Liquid IV.