~ Delta Poetry Review ~

Daniel Edward Moore

Dear Anticipation

If you must, then die sweet world of this,

                             of waiting for joy to metastasize,

                                               like holding a stranger’s feverish hand

                                                                                  until it becomes your own.

Then you can burn for reasons god considers cold

                             as the worst of our hearts' anemic responses

                                                         to what we have shamelessly done,

                                                                                 turns us around, inside out,

like a preacher’s eyes rolling backward

                                after his lovely snake used fangs

                                                 as a bridge from this venomous world.

                                                                      Tomorrow’s wounds are expected

to be gorgeous and fashion forward.

                            The soul will judge the runway

                                                if the concept and execution are perfect

                                                                                  and scars are tailored well.

Daniel Edward Moore lives in Washington on Whidbey Island. His work has appeared in Southern Humanities Review, North American Review, and more. His work is forthcoming in The Meadow, New Plains Review, Steam Ticket Journal, and New Limestone Review. His book, Waxing the Dents, is from Brick Road Poetry Press.