Nymph Red Thebe Riverbank Goddess and the Moonlight Thief

You   are   the  bomb  sugar-sizzle  of   a  just-lit  fuse.    The
thumping thrum of a tall-case clock.    You are the moon if
Thebe  sprouted long legs  and  sprinted across the tops of
every lake and sky,  dipped a big toe in the cool still of Lake
Erie and just shook.   Down by the river, where the air rose
from the stacked  wild grass,   the hillside hid us from view
of the road.   We swam and basked  on that outcrop slab of
slate rock we blanketed with our clothes. We moved in that
moonlight.  We  danced  like  shadow  from  the  trees.   My
hands fit your hips.  My  hips  sharpened  against your skin.
Your  mouth  was  wet  and  cool  on  my  tongue   like  some
great wind from the Northwest had announced itself to our
lowdown summer heat.

ROGAN KELLY

Rogan Kelly is the author of the chapbook Demolition in the Tropics (Seven Kitchens Press, 2019). His work has appeared in Diode, New Orleans Review, The Penn Review, Plume, RHINO, and elsewhere. He is the editor of The Night Heron Barks and Ran Off With the Star Bassoon.