wax on

By: Nancy Knowles

wax me, oh glorious Chapstick

for your nectar foments uprising

your cherry scent like all the days

spent in sunlight

your name the balm primes

every gasp every harsh no

wonder the maidens love you

let us hurry oh wicked candle

let me smear your crushed jewels

on my thirsty let me, darkened

by summer and just as lovely, swivel

your tube so long i have tended

vineyards not my own let me, my love

bathe myself. in your carmine perfume

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Nancy Knowles teaches English and Writing at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, OR. She has published poetry in Toyon; Eastern Oregon Anthology: A Sense of Place; Torches n’ Pitchforks; War, Literature, & the Arts; Oregon East; Willawaw Journal; Grand Little Things, Amethyst Review, Wild Roof Journal, and Cirque. She earned first place for her Shakespearean sonnet “Diamond Craters” in 2022 from the Oregon Poetry Association.