Poetry
August 2021
Uppity & Spacious
I awake to ocean & dunes / To uppity cerulean
By Rodney Terich Leonard
August 4, 2021

Besides a wasp in the shutters
Otherwise unalarmed as glycerin
I awake to ocean & dunes
To uppity cerulean
San José Cabo sky.
I wish my grandmother owned Zadún, A Ritz-Carlton Reserve.
I underline the thought.
I swear I care.
Where is my pied-à-terre?
What’s a wall without a Kerry James Marshall?
Overnight broiled to randy
9am wands me expressed.
I glide into that kingdom of tub facing north.
I am ready for me this Fourth of July.
I soak & play in lavender & orange peels.
I loofah & keep it keen.
Today is dedicated to Curtis Mayfield
For penning “Eddie You Should Know Better.”
Spacious sky: I summered with a man named Obie.
He, too, sang sensibly in falsetto.
Rodney Terich Leonard is the author of Sweetgum & Lightning (Four Way Books). His second poetry collection, Another Land of My Body, is also forthcoming with Four Way Books.
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