IN MONTH FIVE OF COVID DISTANCING FROM MY PARTNER by Erik Wilbur

In the shower, while reaching

for the shampoo, I leaned

into a spot of cold air. The chill

that should’ve repelled me to

the warm cascade, instead, pulled me

closer. I moved, like a warbler

chasing a line of latitude, toward

the back of the tub, then farther,

where the spray couldn’t reach at all,

and I waited there as if it were her

turn to rinse, as if sacrifice

is not the recognition, but the pre-

condition, of love,

and I shivered and shivered.

Erik Wilbur teaches writing at Mohave Community College in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. He is also the program director of Real Toads Poetry Society, a literary organization that provides opportunities for residents of Northwestern Arizona communities to learn about, experience, and share works of literary art. His work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in The Southampton Review, Sandhills, Aquifer, and Poet Lore.