into a forgetfulness. I’ve lost my manners
because drought has taken all the glassware
from my cupboard and I can’t gesture water.
But love, if you want to go
wild in the china shop
of my body, do.
I warn you, I am an idiot
at touch. You don’t believe me—
look at the hydrangeas. They’re so blue.

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Carly Joy Miller’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, Blackbird, Boston Review, Gulf Coast, Third Coast, and elsewhere. She has been nominated for a Pushcart and was a finalist for the Stadler Fellowship. She is a contributing editor for Poetry International and a founding editor of Locked Horn Press.