Eli V. Rahm
Animal Crossing
Every day you learn what it means to thirst. In Joshua Tree, a coyote lopes across the road mouth parted, tongue
searching. You enunciate in cicadas and catbirds. The way your belly protrudes in every T-shirt. I lean against you
slip my hand beneath the cloth—palm to stomach. Your happy trail is lighter than mine—soft underbelly
of willow leaves. You yawn and stretch. We pause, make another cup of coffee.
Catch fish out the window.
Eli V. Rahm reads “Animal Crossing”
Eli V. Rahm (they/them) is a queer writer from Virginia. Eli is the recipient of the 2023 Mary Roberts Rinehart Poetry Award and the 2020 Joseph A. Lohman III Award in Poetry. Their work is featured or forthcoming in Door is a Jar, Passages North, Bellingham Review, The Academy of American Poets, among others. You can find them at https://elisaurus.carrd.co/