Trace
For Bob
In your morning pouring of coffee,
eggs whisked, peppers diced,
& pancetta browning; in the unsolidified
splatters you cleanse from the countertop;
in Pandora’s box of Edgar Meyer phenotypes
unseating the disquietude of our former lives;
in afternoon cappuccinos you pronounce in Italian
& in your full belly’s tranquil cogitations;
in your evening removal of socks & your feet’s relief;
& in your crescent smile’s light sheltering me—
with my kisses pressing away the decades’ trace
of iniquities from the courses I forge
toward the dimple of your left cheek—
is everywhere my home will be.
Stephanie L. Harper
Stephanie L. Harper is a recently transplanted Oregonian now living in Indianapolis, IN. Harper is the author of the chapbooks This Being Done and The Death’s-Head’s Testament. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in Slippery Elm, The High Window (Featured American Poet), Panoply, Isacoustic*, Riggwelter Press, Literati Magazine, Whale Road Review, and elsewhere. Visit her online at https://www.slharperpoetry.com.