RetracE

a proleptic appearance

of light defined the morning for an indefinite duration,

earth, the anteroom, the sink,

the saucepan teeming for days, stinks now the final

recall to get things done, the daylight now fully assumed, even earlier

shoulder blades churned in search of friction

viscid discharge propelled

by conscience, arid eyes being looked at, iridescent

cloud, like a hammock, above a vespertine

expanse unthrottles engrossed senses a face

taken between cold hands—briefly, shrugged, pennies

in a fountain bisect sunlit beams this landscape front of Bar Harbor, gulls

fed by one man... a tourist, from his position the grass veered down

to an oblique street, then to a few ramifying docks,

reeks of salty meat occupy this tame, inner Atlantic

Ehsan Ahmed Mehedi is a poet and visual artist from Bangladesh. His work has appeared or forthcoming in Frozen Sea, Oracle, Harbor Review, Stonecoast Review, The Quarter(ly), Kitchen Table Quarterly, and elsewhere. His poetry was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He is currently a graduate poetry fellow at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.