by Tara Labovich
Dishsoap Quarterly

girl, what r u summoning
from the henceforth? from
the future? from your guts?
the yearn is a summons
for wet creation, long arm
winding into the ether,
looking, looking
like Jennifer’s body
we succubus
desire, we’re possessed, we’re waiting
for it all to rankle in our bodies!
lovehunger, touchache, the singsong
from the cloister of want.
i had forgotten the way it hurts.

after midnight my friend & i sat
in the dark car, doing the linger,
streetlit.
i was saying something about the way
the universe talks, i was saying,
i want to protect ur desire
when we saw the fox.
she came quick, only
for the length of a streetcorner.
there—gone,
like all language, like the neighborgod,
like she was proving a point to us all about
what it’s like to have the world
rile in you, talk to you again.

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Tara Labovich (they/them) is an Iowa-based writer, teaching college composition and creative writing. Their research heavily explores creative process and their writing has earned the Pearl Hogrefe Grant and the Adelaide Bender Reville Prize, and is nominated for BotN and the Pushcart Prize. Their writing appears in Brevity, Tractor Beam, Crannog, Salt Hill, among others. You can find them walking the prairie with their dog and offering free creative writing workshops in Central Iowa.