Who are you to eulogize your own
nostalgia barred in the faces
of teens riding bikes past the apartment door?
Your loneliness
does not preclude praising their arms, neck, mid-kiss.
Not another idea but the length
it takes to swim past its darkest of showers.
I cover my feet before the stuff
you press unto me and call majesty.
v.
Jos Charles
Jos Charles is author of a Year & other poems and feeld (Milkweed Editions)—a Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the National Poetry Series—and Safe Space (Ahsahta Press). She resides in Long Beach, California, with her best friend and cat.