Poem

Solve for x

by carol alexander

A dissected lemon starred with currants
lolls between lovers

when miners split the earth for gold
by algorithm say the 8-day lapse between fever and chills

the fecund female with her egg basket full the velvety bat
how we've starved our borders—yet permeable

a ripe disease how spring has painted us into small corners

this threading pulse
anchored to the same desires serpentine

currants in citrus and puckered lips

you cannot use the thumb for a pulse
child that's got its own

a day clothed in marvel (virtual lilies in smoke)

those floating morgues
the sea the sea the Flying Dutchman

born into the age of the cure,
shall we now belong also to history—

on land I hide like the stubborn impulse of a bud

Carol Alexander is the author of the poetry collections Environments (Dos Madres Press), Habitat Lost (Cave Moon Press ) and Bridal Veil Falls (Flutter Press.) Alexander's poems appear in anthologies and in journals such as Aji, The American Journal of Poetry, The Canary, Chiron Review, The Common, Cumberland River Review, The Goose, Hamilton Stone Review, The Healing Muse, One, Poetrybay, Southern Humanities Review, Sweet Tree Review, and Third Wednesday. New work is forthcoming in Denver Quarterly and Raintown Review.

Carol donated to Feeding America.