By Kimberly Johnson

Oh, my quantum soul—restive, sizzling
In its nimbus
Of need. How it dizzies

In the orbit of another’s passing
Fancy, fickle
As it flirts its vacant shells

Hey there sexy fella can you fill
My spinning empties
With your any loose electrons?

How in relentless ciphers it scrawls
On any bathroom wall
My atomic number.

How in relentless ciphers it scrawls
On any bathroom wall
My atomic number.

It is a light element, an errant
Sphere with strong wants:
Come Lover, let’s charge ourselves

A spark, a star, a dark and secret
Supernova, let
Us cleave ourselves: attract,

Repel, attract, repel, let us fall
In common gravity,
By which I mean love, and then fall

Out.

Kimberly Johnson’s most recent collection is Uncommon Prayer. She has work recent and forthcoming in The New Yorker and Best American Poetry 2020. Johnson is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the NEA, among others. She lives and teaches in Utah.