When we were in the story, a moss, like feathers
blessed our feet where we walked. When
we were in the story, I wore your jockey shorts
and nothing else. The a-words came down like rain
that we licked, over-licked: ambivalence, ant, Apollo, arch,
& ask. Your words told me I was beautiful, and horny, smart and
sweet. Noon transpired and still we stayed in the cove licking,
over-licking. Sun bedraggled the feathered moss, everything plain
and real, then the bees’ overture. When we look back
on the story, we may watch it change—the a’s were not said aloud,
I was horny, but not sweet enough. The bees had already
pearled into death. The cove collects its moss, co-exists
with the story—sometimes inhabited by humans,
sometimes storyless, accruing a’s: acid, allegory,
apocalypse, amens.

Amy Pence is a full-time tutor in Atlanta where she’s taught poetry-writing at Emory University and in other workshop settings. Her books include Armor, Amour and [It] Incandescent from Ninebark Press, and the chapbook Your Posthumous Dress: Remnants from the Alexander McQueen Collection released by dancing girl press last winter. Find links to other work at www.amypence.com.