Catching

For AnnaRose 

You were alive when I bought you
                             tortas
                             & toffee.
Perhaps there’s still one
                             there
                             half-chewed
on your counter.
                             Still
                             your saliva
on it. Proof
                             you’re existing.

What bothers me are the things––
                            the sweaters, the books, the food in the fridge,
your soap, your body you loved and kissed––
                           now phantom limbs floating in the abyss.

A bisque, as my little brother would pronounce it,
as we threw rocks off cliffs. A bisque! as if we were
tossing them into the void to land
in a giant pot of rock stew. A nice hearty tomato
bisque to make the blues less
of a cliff. We’d throw the rocks; shouting;
hoping; pledging. That if something so dense
could float, fleetingly––perhaps,
our bodies too would catch the air.

*

Audrey King is a recent graduate of Bennington College where she concentrated in Poetry and Dance. She was the host of a poetry radio show on B-rad for two years where she interviewed poets and writers, including Philip Williams, Kaveh Akbar amongst others. She currently lives in Los Angeles.