Kevin Young
May 2003

Aubade


There is little else
I love: the small

of yr back, your thick
bottom

lip stuck out.
Your moue makes

me wheeze & want.
Wake. I am like

that big Bessie,
a red cow’s plea—

milk me, baby.
Will you stay?

Or rise, as sun
does, & make us day?

from Jelly Roll: A Blues, Knopf, 2003.