It Is Your Neighborhood By Mary Julia Klimenko

It Is Your Neighborhood

Street lamps cast shadows
Through lace curtains,
Illuminate your bed,
Or maybe they are cool, neon lights
Through your hotel window.
It’s hard to remember where you live.
Only your legs have fallen open
Like a bored burlesque queen.
Only his arms can make you safe.
He defines you with his mouth.
Feel yourself float upward into his face.
You know what you can’t have.
You’ll never go away.
Somewhere in your body you know how it is
To rise up almost motionless,
Carry your pain, a dead animal
Out to the street
Light a torch.

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Bio: Mary Julia Klimenko obtained her BA & MA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University where she taught Creative Writing for two years before returning to school to get a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology. She divides her time between her private psychotherapy practice and writing. She has a chapbook published by Spire Press, Source Vein, is published in numerous literary journals and has three limited edition books in print in collaboration with artist, Manuel Neri.