AMY SPARKS - POEMS

Amy Sparks lives in Troy, Ohio. She enjoys reading, writing, swimming, running and keeping to herself. She has been previously published in The Broadkill Review and Iconoclast. 

Wasted
​

​ 
Gold field
Leans on black sky
November wind blows
The musky scent of
Your skin my way
 
I’ve wasted all these years
Yearning for your eyes
On me
The heavy weight of your hand
On the warm skin of my thigh
Warming dark caves
With lightning
 
Such shame --
The moonbow of distance between us
 
Strike it down with Indra’s arrow.
 

Outside
​

​I bet you look good
With your blue eyes
And blond hair
In that orange jumpsuit
 
My bleeding heart hopes
You need stitched up
Over and over and over
And over
 
I smell clean Ohio dirt
While you choke on Texas dust
Behind concrete blocks
 
I can run between a hundred light poles
watch snowflakes fall in porch lights
hike along a ridge of fallen leaves covering my feet
leave my door unlocked
let fog drip from my long dark hair
watch a movie and eat popcorn and suck cherry coke through a straw
dive into cold water on a hot summer day and come up with goosebumps
smoke a cone we nicknamed Clementine
watch my daughter play the sax or shoot an arrow or hit a tennis ball
look for Orion in purple sky any damn time I want
go to funerals, leave flowers on graves
go to the corner store for milk
order a pizza with extra sauce and have it in thirty minutes or less
 
I can hold this piece of paper against a plate glass window and make you read it.
 
I could smile when you realize
That I can get to you
But you can’t get to me
Because I’m on the
Outside.
 

Sometime in December
​

​Days before Christmas
We ran into each other
At the funeral
Of a mutual friend
 
After, we sat in your car at Menke Park
Smoked cigarettes
Drank beer
And listened to Silent Night
 
It was cold
The world is white
 
It was dusk
Winter light frozen
 
You aren’t happy
Your eyes tell me
I know you better than she does
 
Do you remember:
the cross hanging from my neck
As I moved on top of you,
How the gold glinted in the light
You left on in the hall,
So you could see my face
My thin white nightgown up around my tan thighs
 
You whispered I love you for the first time.
 

Here’s What You’ll Find:
​

​Tiny fish, fat and silver
Glistening apricot jelly
White shoulders
Maidens in teal-blue gowns
And wearing coats of ermine
Pink toes
And a sleek beaver pelt
Soft petals of rose
 
Look closer
 
A delicate cat’s tongue
A glossy pebble in a stream
Gray meltwater
The silk underbelly of a lying dog
Chipped ice
A purple hill at dawn
Covered in bee pollen yellow