Dan Kraines
Wash Us Away
I never thought you were in love with me, but that’s why
you touched me.
My mother says that
I was so attractive as a child, people asked to take my photograph,
but what do the poses
of a child become?
Not being a model didn’t protect me.
Not being a child did.
I was protected and I am
loved. I was protected
and I am loved.
Now that I am unable to eat, my cheekbones show. I lie down,
thinking of you,
a flood rising across my body.
I scroll through photos, seeing you,
older now.
With a woman.
Dan Kraines reads “Wash Us Away”
Dan Kraines holds a PhD in poetry from the University of Rochester. His poems have appeared in The Adroit Journal and The Normal School, among many other places. He teaches at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.