Insomnia (Watching My Husband Sleep)

Insomnia (Watching My Husband Sleep)

Shelby Poulin

your sweet
scapulae, shadowed valleys, beam
chromatic in the moon’s metallic
mouth

your breath
shifts pillow and sheet, tectonic
plates breaking in the silver up-
down

your finger
flex, force of habit, tugs my tendon
muscle-deep, reminds like a pinkie
string

your sleep
sears my bones, husband means
surrendered body, the double
one

your lips
two cotton wicks, flammable crisp
braids that my whispers
ignite

it’s 4 a.m.—
still, I’m stewing in your rich,
sugared weight, with water-balloon
eyes

wake up wake up wake up
baby
we outshine the moon

---

Shelby Poulin
Poet & Professor of English

Shelby Poulin's works have appeared and are forthcoming in publications such as the Curator, the Other Journal, and the Christian Century. She is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at Liberty University.

Photography by Alice Triquet