Conditional Self
if we meet in the desert and if we let the scent of creosote enter us
and if we spread our banquet beneath the flat blue sky and cry out yes
and if we let the ghost lights wink over us
as we open ourselves to the night and cry out yes
and if you take me into your mouth
and if my hipbones rise to meet you
and if your teeth and if your tongue
and if my hands and if my mouth
and if I cry out yes and if you call my name
and if the lights go dark and if we lose our breath
and if we cry out yes and if we cry out yes
and if we cry out then who will we be then
and if then
and if then
Mary-Kim Arnold's short fiction has appeared at Tin House (online), Wigleaf, Swarm Quaterly, and The Pinch. Her poems have been published in Day One, Year One: Best of 2014, burntdistrict, Two Serious Ladies, Sundog Lit, and elsewhere. She has also written for HTML Giant, The Lit Pub, and The Rumpus, where she is Essays Editor. Mary-Kim received her MFA in Fiction from Brown University and is studying poetry at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She plays bass in the band WORKING and lives in Rhode Island with her husband and children.