Leia Darwish

knob & tube

         – as I pass
a window goes dark – by the light

it’s seven – traffic’s stop & go –

– I’m drifting –
         – I’m almost

in the other lane – white autumn

sky – truant sun
         aflame in the changing

leaves – we move in when they start
         to fall –

         – shuffling of mice –

– warren of plaster & lath – if

we make contact – if
         our sheathings fall away –

         – this hazard a luxury
we’ve earned – didn’t we say

we’ve come here to die –
          – hot wire spun with neutral –

– thread these walls
         bare & groundless – bound
         to catch

Leia Darwish is an MFA candidate in poetry at Virginia Commonwealth University, and lead associate editor emerita at Blackbird. She has been nominated for an AWP Intro Journals award and her poetry and nonfiction have appeared in Copper Nickel, PANK, The Pinch, Southern Indiana Review, and elsewhere.