Before you I was a naked name,
a biological creature
who had no proper description.
I loved to call you my Sirius,
the brightest star in the night sky,
and you called me many;
your water, vita, your potion
of passion, half honey, half poison.
Right before the wildfires
glazed all the stars, we found
a red roadkill wolf, canis rufus,
on the midnight asphalt
like an abandoned flame.
We did not know then
that it would be our last night,
that you would share
the same end next morning
on your way to the water line.
Now I name myself Rufus,
dye my hair red. I howl to the flames.
Özge Lena is an internationally published poet whose work appears in The London Magazine, Mslexia, The Oxford Blue, Hunger Mountain Review, The International Times, and elsewhere. She is the author of the monthly "Extinction Column" for the Oxford Climate Society blog. She recently presented her poetic approach, "Catapoetics: Poetry of the Catastrophe," at the International Conference on Poetry Studies, Birkbeck, University of London. Find her at: www.ozgelena.com
More work by Özge Lena
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