Khadijah Queen
Nights, Days, Seasons

Nights, Days, Seasons

you see sheets of snow
folded into ice—bear it
while the thaw trickles

   ***

a toxic river
hugging fish bones and weeds—
every nothing grows

   ***

June blossoms thickly
spring itching to surrender
cool breezes to heat

   ***

invisible flea
bites its way through layers
having conquered fur

   ***

gray frog at night looms
its croak—a giant shadow
swelling two-inch space

   ***

rabbit hunting grass
pauses to tilt its small ears
for my laughing son

   ***

sleep curls out early
the stubborn night blackening—
a mink's eyes grown large

   ***

garish moon hissing
like a round tongue through soft mist
kisses like lost love

   ***

sun gives another
dance to other continents—
I wake jealously

Poet's Biography:

Khadijah Queen was born near Detroit and raised in Los Angeles. She currently resides in Virginia with her two-year-old son, serves in the Armed Forces, and majors in American studies and English at the University of Maryland. Her work has been published in Eye Dialect, The Pedestal Magazine, and Poems Niederngasse, and is forthcoming in Pierian Springs.