Nick Martino

So grateful to @tinderboxpoetry.bsky.social for publishing this poem, one of my favorites in the new book

LOVE POEM You watched your first deer die when you were six. You watched the slotted eye-light was there and then gone-but that's not right, is it? Having seen death open like night-blooming jasmine, the hour of its unsticking blue and slow? It's late. Moonlight waterfalls the plastic blinds. I give you the bottle of Red Label, you give me the dab rig. You light the nail for me. Your resin paints my voice shut like a basement window. It's an evening of gifts: I hate this feeling in my lungs but I love the name you give to shatter. Yes, I know you have pills for later, long after I've fallen asleep. I know I'll wake to check if you're still breathing— Staring down the dark, breathless for the rising of your chest.

This new love poem by Nick Martino (just came out in Passages North) is so beautiful—perfect music

Thank you so much for sharing this my friend 🥰💎