Michael Quattrone

How to Love

Dig a large hole, mind-sized; toss it in.
Write it down in felt-tipped pen 

on the crosshairs of a feather.
Begin with a stone. Boil water forever. 

Peel away each razor leaf
from the tough grass stem.

Hold a hummingbird between your thumbs. 

Make dinner of illegible light
and leave a window open. 

Tie a bowstring to the sun before it sets.
Let it pull you along the edge of night.

Yes, that is the fur of something warm.
Yes, that is the scent of birth.

No, I can’t explain it either.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Michael Quattrone (he/him) is the author of Rhinoceroses (New School Chapbook Award, 2006) and the songs of One River (Wolfe Island Records, 2018). His work is included in The Best American Erotic Poems (Scribner, 2008) and The Incredible Sestina Anthology (Write Bloody, 2013). Recent poems appear in  Streetlight, DMQ Review and Muleskinner. He lives in Tarrytown, New York, where he reads poetry for The Westchester Review and Slapering Hol Press.