Kendra Preston Leonard

Dissolving

Reclaim you the beast from the land?
It is no platypus, toxic, agile.
The wilder mountains
and the noise of the imperfect spiral,
harmonize with this contest:
you and he.

Young and unsung in the words,
surpassing but a mere half,
you are silent and he
strikes,
scores;
you will soon cross the waters.

This little slip, this
unheard crack, this ship
you walk without hands:
a leitmotif, rests and
patterns you break in the air,
bookknife and shattered ribs.

Middleocean, middlenight,
fingertips wet and soft,
brings you unbearable breathing
stopping your throat with notes.

Ask for the pitch if you must
but you’ll find that you are howling
even amid dissolving,
a part to a sunder
augmented.

Kendra Preston Leonard is a poet, lyricist, and librettist whose work is inspired by the local, historical, and mythopoeic. Her chapbook Making Mythology was published in 2020 by Louisiana Literature Press, and her work has appeared in vox poetica, lunch, The Waggle, and Lily Poetry Review, among other venues. Her novella-in-verse Protectress, about the gorgons in the modern world, is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press in 2022. Leonard collaborates regularly with composers on new operas and songs. Follow her on Twitter at @K_Leonard_PhD or visit her site at https://kendraprestonleonard.hcommons.org/.