Polyamory: A Love Letter
There’s God in a rubber band beard and I must accept Him and one other.
I ask one of the poly lovers how they live with their ultraviolet options:
I am devoted to sandpaper palms, apple skin, and every possible forever.
I like the theory of things––liberation and love––yet I can’t kick
tucking promises into my partner’s elastic cheeks. In the beginning
we prayed to everything––to branches for dropping fruit,
to oceans for not using our bones as reefs, yet polytheist spirits
must excuse themselves from redwood dinner tables. We stroke
pillow hair in the morning, trek bushy parks on opaque evenings
where furry branches rub away the guilt of anonymous need.
I’m only in love with the creation stage. Some of God’s foliage may stick
to me, but the infinite textures of palms are too beautiful to stop.
Charles McGregor teaches composition, rhetoric, and creative writing at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). He is also the Web Editor for the literary journal riverSedge, which is run by the MFA department at UTRGV. When not daydreaming of ideas for how to make an awesome classroom experience for his students, he likes to compose poetry tackling difficult queer issues in the Southern United States. Some of his works can be found in modest literary magazines such as No Infinite, Boundless, Portland Review, and The Missing Slate. Follow him on Twitter @CMcgregor209.