A BIANNUAL LITERARY MAGAZINE
For the Neon Cross
Kristen Rouisse
On Nebraska Avenue velvet crushes tongues and I,
not lucky enough to watch. Inside the chapel, Christ’s blood snakes
the folds of a stranger’s lips; a smack,
a sticky exhale as purple as flesh.
Atop the small roof, fat bars buzz their hymn-slung hums, blue
sputters against street lamps,
and I worship
your artificial flicker
from the driver’s seat,
temporary beneath the veil of a peach-pit moon.
Kristen Rouisse is pursuing her MFA in poetry at the University of South Florida, where she teaches creative writing and composition. Her work has appeared in Thin Air Magazine, Hobart (forthcoming), Watershed Review, and Broad!, among others. She’s a former poetry and nonfiction editor for Saw Palm: Florida Literature and Art and current co-graduate advisor for Thread Literary Inquiry.