Uppity & Spacious

                                              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.