Sarah Gambito is the author of the poetry collections Delivered (Persea Books) and Matadora (Alice James Books). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Iowa Review, The Antioch Review, Denver Quarterly, The New Republic, Field, Quarterly West, Fence and other journals. Her honors include the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award from Poets and Writers and grants and fellowships from The New York Foundation for the Arts, Urban Artists Initiative and The MacDowell Colony. She is Assistant Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at Fordham University. Together with Joseph O. Legaspi, she co-founded Kundiman, a non-profit organization serving Asian American poets.
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willing
to be young
and spank a lightbulb.
be the fleet
the expensive one.
loved for
itinerant raspberries beneath your skin
for your emblem so much that you think
I want a son
into the sling that purposesits stone
you thought you’d see
a jellyfish,
a toe
a real estate rainbow
hovering near
glassine and shaking
himself with canine aplomb
for we know that a dog’s love
is forgettable
reaches out to all corners
of the dear old forest
indiscriminate, indefatigable and
making decisions because I had to when in doubt I pinched my fingers closed the shades I held
tomatoes in my little hands and when I cried everyone was uncomfortable