Thanks to a friend’s good looking out, I was able to live the dream at the AWP Conference in Boston last month. Among the many highlights of the trip was the fact that I got to meet and verbally stumble in front of poet whose work I adore, Eduardo C. Corral. As I struggled to find my thoughts and seem cool, he was just generally delightful, and helped to make the copy of Slow Lightning I’d picked up months before really mine. His words are so lovely that you don’t realize the strength of the image they’ve made until the next line. I’ve selected a poem that is best read from the book itself, but you’re in for a treat all the same.

[…] In bed while we slept, our bodies inches apart, the dark between our flesh a wick. It was burning down. And he couldn’t feel it.

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Ask me anything.

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I want to find the perfect shade of red. Say that.

—from ‘Poem After Frida Kahlo’s Painting The Broken Column‘ by Eduardo C. Corral

For reference, the painting.

For more, Corral’s blog.