When I am Close Enough to be Sure it is You • Kell Xavier

When I am Close Enough to be Sure it is You by Kell Xavier

poetry

When I was small, I walked

too fast on the hiking trail;

with parents, companions, then only

a curl of ferns and mango candy

to gnaw alone on a cool rock.

I miss you like that.

I gather you

in hours, melted between us.

You marble through my clay.

A poem buys me a lover.

A poem chews through time.

A poem is awkward company:

it squints to see this bucking horse

from where you stand.

I fall short except for love.

Kell Xavier (they/he) is a disabled genderqueer poet living on unceded Coast Salish lands (Vancouver). They are fond of books, swimming, and home. Kell has previously published poetry in superfroot magazine, Stone of Madness Press, the hearth magazine, and Juice Journal (The University of Winnipeg).