Remember Paris 2012?

Headlights sweep 

the cobbled streets

illuminating rose gardens-

pale and lucious. 

we wait,

minutes tick by 

smelling of strawberries

and the greenest little ivy.

our hands marry

under streetlights like rangy goats

ovals scramble up an ancient 

wall that imprisons bones

of a prehistoric beast.

Oh Ichthyosaur!

why are your fossils like magnets? 

shudder, sigh, repel, then  

gaze as if through a glass

darkly at 3:00 am.  

the museum has curated 

the gloomiest show on earth. 

desiccated vampires 

mark time in floral coffins.

an ebony boulder

festooned with manacles

is locked to the floor, 

ticking.

----------------------------------------

CM Sears (she/they) are essayist, poet, fiction writer, and interdisciplinary artist. CM graduated with a Master of Arts from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, MI, returning to school after a long career as a professional dancer. Recent fiction publications of their work can be found in the American Book Review, The Hare’s Paw Literary Journal, Iselle Magazine, the Sad Girl’s Club Lit, and elsewhere.  Poems have been published by the Dewdrop, Juste Milieu, and Maple Street Studios. Their visual art has been shown in Chicago, and other places in the US. They are Leo with Scorpio rising.