A road can only freeze & thaw
so many times before hairline cracks
open to chasms. Closed, I’m

a stark wind; a struck match
carves no fire for me. Exposed, 

I’m a candle, wicks on all my fingers,
the wax runny. I court heat
& heat courts everything

around me. A shot of clear liquor.
A bump of ketamine. The wrecking 

ball of another naked body
against my naked body. I catch
& I go out. I thaw & I freeze. It can 

happen only so many times
before I have to lay new concrete.

I can roll the old road in a tumbler
until it’s crushed, or stitch it
back together with tar the smell 

of sulfur & melancholy. A black
so deep, it’s like an onyx bead 

in a dead king’s crown, or a chasm
so steep, I take a wrong step,
& the floor’s cool rock runs up to kiss me.

Published March 21st, 2021

Lucas Jorgensen is a poet and educator from Cleveland, Ohio. He holds a BS from Florida State University and currently studies in the MFA program at New York University where he is a Goldwater Fellow and assistant poetry editor for Washington Square Review. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Fugue, New Limestone Review, ellipses… literature & art, and others.

Yevgeniya Baras is an artist and curator based in New York. Born in Syzran, Russia, Baras attended Slade School of Fine Arts (University of London), earned a BA and an MS at the University of Pennsylvania, and an MFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Along with numerous group shows and residencies, Baras has held solo exhibitions at Reyes Finn Gallery in Detroit, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery in New York, The Locker Plant in Marfa, 68Projects in Berlin, and Station Gallery in Sydney, among others. Baras is also a member of the faculty at Sarah Lawrence College and the Rhode Island School of Design. More of Baras’ work is available on her website or through Nicelle Beauchene Gallery.