little gaze, gentle smile
eyebrows raised, stay awhile.
glass on a coffee table with its
expanding ring.
leave a mark on me
i might be changed forever.
it’s a
slow
burn
it’s a
faucet
drip
but it rips through the ceramic
over time.
etch grooves in the floor from where
you salsa-danced with me.
wear through the wood
mark it with your feet as we
barely touch
in matching theater seats.
i’m not used to this fickle little trickle
but i’d love to be changed
by it.

---

Alexis Rhodes is a queer, polyamorous poet, playwright, performer, and strategist based in North Carolina. Her poetry has been described as raw and confessional, with just enough humor to lighten the mood. Alexis was recently published with The Words Faire and Wayfarer Magazine, and has forthcoming publications with Action,Spectacle, Blood+Honey, Phylum Press, Ghost Light Lit, Half and One, and Drip Lit Magazine. She has completed five anthologies: Notes on a Narcissist, LONGING, Goddess, Spiked Crowns, and lex, your poetry’s grotesque and is submitting to presses. Alexis lives with her husband, two kids, and a hedgehog named Hedge. Instagram: @alexis_writes_things.