As if to be human is to seek the warmth of another body,
……………………………………………..skin and the course of blood beneath

The blood beneath the skin of a city street, how it gives back
……………………………………………..the heat when dusk untethers from the sun’s radiant reach

The radiant reach of the heat rising from the skin of the street
……………………………………………..as would any figure of lonely drift and form

A form that you meet in the shape of its heat
……………………………………………..and carry into the cool clime of dawn.

Ken Holland has been widely published in literary journals and nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize. He placed first in the 2022 New Ohio Review poetry contest and finalist in the 2024 Concrete Wolf Chapbook Prize. He lives in the mid-Hudson Valley of N.Y.  Find more at kenhollandpoet.com.