Cento for Young Lovers

by Garrison Harper

Scene 1: In the Bedroom

A sliver of sun pierces the cold morning sky.
Lovers come, move like surgery,
angled and pierced.

Act 1:

Her:

“Darling, come,
put your ear to the earth,
take my body.”

Him:

“At night the city burns:
Let’s melt into our unrest.
Spin with arms held like kite strings
let the dry bones dance again.
It’s a feeling inside you,
a fish hanging from its hook.
Even the river sweats its blood;
hot flesh melts into asphalt still breathing”

Her:

“I am the whore and the mother
eating thunder, that which causes
the most pain, leaving shrapnel scars,
as the birds came from the folds
of the sun’s fingers. Open my legs.

Scene 2: Still in the Bedroom

After seeing it spread out an emptiness occurs,
as if she were a hooker standing
in from of an old lonely man, whispering
in his ears look but don’t touch.

Act 2:

Her:

“Smoke a cigarette.
Breath in the ashes.”

Him:

“You’re not a girl anymore.”

Her:

“Because I want to be numb.”

Him:

“Like happiness, it’s a moving target.”

Her:

“The halls are narrow and dark emptiness
is warmed by the fire of starlings.”

Him:

“Stop fretting.”

Her:

“To feel a shadow,
the shape of the shadow
drinking rain, stare at its stillness
undressing in mirrors,
searching for some brilliant voice in the breeze
to resemble a billowing dress in the smoke,
blows me far away from green memories.”

Scene 3: Still in the Bedroom

We’ve seen the shape and angle
that male angst has cast
in combustion and sweat;
these grenades made from dandelion hearts—
long bones gliding under skin
to hold wonder as it bends
into whatever the next person wants it to be.
Because the story must end.

Garrison Harper writes and writes and writes whenever the opportunity presents itself. When they’re not writing, they’re spending time with their family and every once in a while sleeps. They have some books and some published work here and there but nothing is as important as their hope you’ll fall in love with their words.

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