baptize me in the brandywine with a bottle
of hard cider in my hand / stick to me like
wet clothes / tuck yourself inside me
like a message in a bottle
the water licked my body like / envelope
glue, sealed me up / and the moon didn’t
bother trying / to cover her black eye /
purple cotton candy bruise
baptize me in the brandywine with the
tiny river clams / with the coors light cans /
the rush hour traffic, that’s not our world /
our world is honeysuckle wind and the
anxiety of trying to describe it /
reach for me, I’m slippery as silt covered rock /
bury yourself like riverbed trash / catch your
eyes flash / like dark side of spanish moon /
baptize me in the brandywine beneath the
valentine red and white crucifix / hammered
to the riverside tree / some drowning victim
memorial / a prayer begs to be slurred
~~~
Rebecca Kokitus is a poet residing in the Philadelphia area. She is a student at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, where she studies English with a concentration in Writing. Her work has been published and is forthcoming in over two dozen literary journals. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram at @rxbxcca_anna, and you can read more of her writing on her website.
