I Distributed Caresses

after Patrizia Cavalli

This night would not be so unkind

to bare knees. In this town I find myself

surrounded by cars in all states

of disrepair—dents, scraped paint,

grinning engines all ask me,

if this could be home. I exchange

my glances with neighborhood cats

for untied shoe laces and too much hurry.

I washed my hands and checked my locks

and touched my stovetop

as a lover, nurse, coconspirator. Knowing

too little what my body knew.

The light copper-colored,

and the light gone.

Julia Brush is a poet, translator, and PhD student in English literature at the University of Connecticut. Her poems and audio work have appeared in 2 Bridges Review, Nightjar Review, and directed dreaming.