A veil’s tiny
black diamonds touch
your lashes, your cheeks.
Perfume
ringing from your wrist,
you lean
sideways on the stair.
Your brim, your lips just
brush me.
Faraway, mild,
your eyes
lift to him.
I am stunned by your body
trying to hide
its eagerness
to pull away
from mine.
Stephanie Strickland’s seventh book of poems, Dragon Logic, was published by Ahsahta in 2013. Her eighth, V : WaveTercets / Losing L’una (SpringGun Press, 2014), is accompanied by the freely downloadable Vniverse app for iPad created with Ian Hatcher. She has collaborated on ten born-digital poems, most recently Sea and Spar Between and Duels – Duets with Nick Montfort and House of Trust with Ian Hatcher. She is on the board of directors of the Electronic Literature Organization. For more on her work, visit stephaniestrickland.com. (updated 9/2014)