She Brings Me Gifts

O love, piss on a stick,
sex by the calendar,
our OB’s German porn,
blue pills, and IUIs
compose the intricate
and fragile chemistry
of hope that this late age
will not come fruitless
to a close, that after all
the two-week windows shut
against desire, this one
will open at our touch–
a breath of evening air,
and rising out of sight,
a sound that could be birdsong
or the high, light cry
of something headed home.

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BOB WATTS is an Assistant Professor in English and Creative Writing at Lehigh University. His first collection, Past Providence (David Robert Books, 2005), won the 2004 Stanzas Prize from David Robert Books, and his poems have been published in Poetry, The Paris Review, and reDivider, among other journals.