Carnal Knowledge
BY RICKEY LAURENTIIS
I watched him, silent, beside me, take
the rotten earth into his mouth,
and, sober, with little shame, chew . . .
In that altar between the gums of his teeth and his
teeth, he worked the many tired leaves
of it, downed, until it went ghost, not a thing
at all really—or only liquid now: earth
streaming from his lips, redone in bright
terrible braids, pairs of them, and spat
into a jar that could’ve been like prayer itself:
how faith can be that one container, bare-breasted,
which holds. I watched him, growing out
to the heat of it, like a root. And though I knew
this had something to do with power, I ignored it,
for once being the thing that only looks at—
eyes open, mouth ready, pregnant with the burn.
I watched him, silent, beside me, take
the rotten earth into his mouth,
and, sober, with little shame, chew . . .
In that altar between the gums of his teeth and his
teeth, he worked the many tired leaves
of it, downed, until it went ghost, not a thing
at all really—or only liquid now: earth
streaming from his lips, redone in bright
terrible braids, pairs of them, and spat
into a jar that could’ve been like prayer itself:
how faith can be that one container, bare-breasted,
which holds. I watched him, growing out
to the heat of it, like a root. And though I knew
this had something to do with power, I ignored it,
for once being the thing that only looks at—
eyes open, mouth ready, pregnant with the burn.
Rickey Laurentiis was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. The recipient of fellowships, scholarships or residencies from the Cave Canem Foundation, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, his manuscript has received an honorable mention in the 2010 Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award and was a finalist for the 2011 National Poetry Series. Individual poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and have appeared or are forthcoming in several journals, including Indiana Review, jubilat, Alaska Quarterly Review and Callaloo. Currently, Rickey is pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing at Washington University in St Louis where he is a Chancellor’s fellow.