Threshold
by Samantha Malay
published in Shark Reef – A Literary Magazine, issue 38, summer 2021
http://sharkreef.org/poetry/threshold-2/

on sidewalks slick with rotting leaves
we wait for a freight train to pass

don’t oversleep
we will meet in the middle
of an empty room
in a town of hard shadows
windshield glare and drooping vines

and I will know you by the clothes you once wore
books we misplaced
birds we saw when the car broke down

we are rivers hidden under opaque skies
glass fuses on a basement shelf
the sound of dogs up the street