August unfolded but remembrance
like the tongues of prisoners
like the air blurred thicker
after a hot bath
and the bent wire
outside the window
legs of a black horse
moving far away
and the prayers in the dark
of young girls listening
to wind rustle the wheat fields
green and blue
Jay Deshpande is the author of Love the Stranger (YesYes Books, 2015). He has held residencies at the Saltonstall Arts Colony and the Vermont Studio Center, was a fellowship finalist for the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and was selected by Billy Collins for the 2015 Scotti Merrill Memorial Award at the Key West Literary Seminar. His poems have appeared in Narrative, Boston Review, Sixth Finch, Atlas Review, Handsome, Spork, Prelude, and elsewhere.