Tonight under an unkissed moon—
the recipe is disappearing, a dialogue
with rising tides and a lightship
crashing against a blue shore of healing.
When I struggle in a diorama

of traffic, I become the silver orb
in a city’s pinball machine—be here now
—flung against the pulsing lights
and hectic newspapers that papier-mâché
themselves to my legs, my life, I forget

it’s been years since I’ve seen neon
flickers, now the only language I speak
is seascape, a searchlight, a map
made of unintelligible emotions
I try to navigate. If I could be any age,

I’d be the heartbeat just before
the butter melts, where everything
is soft and easy, a cookbook
for a sacred life. And when I’m desperate
for spices, I go to the bodega to buy love,

but the owner gives me wine and a new pen,
says, This is probably better—and how can I
argue? I had forgotten to pack a lunch,
forgotten how much I ache for anyone
to rest their words against my lips.

Previously published in Dialogues with Rising Tides (Copper Canyon Press, 2021).

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Kelli Russell Agodon (she/her) is a bi/queer poet from the Pacific Northwest. Her next book, Accidental Devotions, will be published on May 12, 2026, by Copper Canyon Press. Kelli is the author of four collections of poems, including the award-winning Dialogues with Rising Tides (Copper Canyon Press, 2021), Hourglass Museum, and Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room, Foreword INDIES Book of the Year for 2010, and a Top 10 GoodReads Best Books of the Year in Poetry.