Three

Poems

by

Chryss Yost

audio

 

Escaping from Autopia

but even leaving, longing to be back,
to do again what I did yesterday—
I, Miss Highway, I couldn’t drive off track

or crash. I joined the candy-coated pack
to follow yellow lines and concrete, gray
but even. Leaving. Longing to be back

beyond those lines, in other lines. Like smack
these flashback rides, E-ticket crack: You pay
you have to stay. I couldn’t drive off track,

or spin to face my enemies’ attack.
The road signs told me “NOW LEAVING L.A.”
but even leaving, longing to be back

to go again. I knew I had a knack
for getting there and going. Child’s play,
And anyway, I couldn’t drive off track,

once safety-strapped onto that strip of black.
I couldn’t lose or get lost on the way,
but even leaving, longing to be back
and be okay. I couldn’t drive off track.

Lai with Sounds of Skin

Shall we dress in skin,
our living linen?
Bone weft,
pull of masculine
into feminine,
the heft,
the warp, weave and spin
of carded days in

tightly-twisted thin
yarns that we begin—
like wool
like will, like has been,
spoken to silken—
to spool:
thick bolts of linen,
skein to skin to skin.


Last Night

When the sun sets, and he isn't home, she walks
Not to be waiting, but she leaves a note:
Back soon, her only message, only wish.

After all, she didn't think he'd stay;
No plans, so no surprises when it ends.
The dishes wait unwashed. Bitter stains

Stretch like shadows on the tablecloth.
Once you believe in finding gods in mortal men
You understand their restlessness as faith;

The way she feels his truth against her skin,
The rough edge of a matchbook, while she grieves
To see her saviors lost, and lost again.

God save the church that she takes refuge in,
The sanctuary given fools and thieves,
This silent girl who loves a man who leaves.

 

About Chryss Yost

Chryss Yost is a poet, editor, and designer. She is the co-editor of California Poetry from the Gold Rush to the Present (with Dana Gioia and Jack Hicks) and Poetry Daily (with Don Selby and Diane Boller). She has two chapbooks, Her poems have been widely anthologized and published in the Hudson Review, Quarterly West, Crab Orchard Review among other journals. She is a former editor of Solo: A Journal of Poetry, book editor for the Santa Barbara Independent, and currently edits the Journal of Haitian Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She lives in Santa Barbara with her daughter, Cassidy.

www.chryssyost.com

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