Lust in Contagion
His heart was carved
out of modern cowboys.
She smiled her pirate grin
under the mask,
hoping both of them
wouldn’t disappear—
but their bodies did
under blue cotton bedsheets
rivaling horizontal clouds.
(They were not causal visitors;
no worries. They lived together
for many years)
but in these times of
#AloneTogether,
boring couple routines
should be suspended—
The living room
shouldn’t become another law firm;
where does the poetry go?
She grabs his smart tie
after the last virtual meeting of the day:
“There’s more work to do…in here…
Outside clothes are shed,
gloves are peeled off;
a sexy, communal hot shower
before the big event—
“And when we get
behind closed doors”
we’ll let our hair hang down*
*–From Behind closed doors (1973), written by Kenny O’Dell
©2020 Carrie Magness Radna All rights reserved.
Born in Norman, Oklahoma, Carrie Magness Radna is an audiovisual cataloger at the New York Public Library, a singer, a lyricist-songwriter, and a poet who loves to travel. Her poems have previously appeared in the Oracular Tree, Tuck Magazine, Muddy River Poetry Review, First Literary Review-East, Mediterranean Poetry, Shot Glass Journal and The Poetic Bond VIII, and will be published in Nomad’s Choir, Polarity E-Magazine and Cosmographia’s “The spirit, it travels: an anthology of transcendent poetry” (July 2019). She won 12th prize of the 2018 Writer’s Digest Poetry Awards for “Lily (no. 48 of Women’s names sensual series),” and 3rd prize for “The tunnel” (category: Words on the Wall: All-Genre Prompt) at the 69th annual Philadelphia Writers’ Conference (2017). Her first chapbook, Conversations with dead composers at Carnegie Hall (Flutter Press) was published in January 2019, and Remembering you as I go walking (Boxwood Star Press) was published on August 23, 2019. Her latest poetry collection, Hurricanes never apologize, was published by Luchador Press in December 2019. She lives with her husband Rudolf in Manhattan.
Cajun Mutt Press 