By Jeff Kilpatrick

a variation on “Sarabande” from Handel’s”Suite In D Minor,” HWV 437

Six degrees’ rise joins us only
by hands. Your left foot’s stutter
echoes my right’s, second hesitations on
third steps into hands and eyes
of electric witnesses:

the lampshaded Bedouin
of a child’s folklore prayer, boxfan
shoulders of dimmer voices or brighter,
television tuned to The Obsolescence Channel,
unblinking vows composed by the magnets’
friend, the stainless desklamp stonewalling
housefires
behind paper glass.
They and we
share hollow hearts, full voices, stranded
together with wooden cords, membranes
brimming
with copper fingers’ three exclamation points.

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Jeff Kilpatrick‘s debut collection, Sucker Punches, is due from Cynren Press in April 2026. He lives near Davenport, Iowa, where he is currently at work on his next manuscript.