notes on limerence

---

Mary McIlvain

 

it’s printed lips 

   around silver pools

    and a buttery cool 

lapping at your ankles

it’s prickling tongues

dredging out farewells

enough to quiet the bats

           this night

     * * *

you are the belly of the sun 

           hanging low

    and i am an icebox 

         full of letters

               * * *

somewhere i fear my intuition

is tying together all the shoes 

           left in the hallway

the lights on the highway 

the snaking souls 

that come from 

    who-knows-where?

 

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Mary McIlvain is a recent graduate who studied art and education at the Rutgers Honors College. She was born and raised in Middletown, New Jersey, where she spends her time frolicking in local parks and swimming in her neighborhood lake. She currently studies at Columbia Teachers College, after which she intends to be an Elementary School art teacher. 

Mary wrote this poem in a course taught by Joanna Furhman, who selected this piece for inclusion in WHR.