Poems by Chloe Hooks

Daphne in the Dark

will you tread softly

if you go?

 

will you leave me awake

with anxious ears

clinging to

your jacket’s rustle

a prophecy in a tongue

i never learned

 

will you deprive me of conclusion as

the door glides into the frame’s embrace

with nothing but a sigh

 

will you leave me

open and

paralyzed

while your cologne vanishes

in stagnant air

while

i, bewildered,

replay again

how

 

steadily

you drew me in

made me feel the warmth

 

Eurydice’s Hymn

i discovered i could spell

anything

as long

as

i

started with

the letters of your name

 

so i follow you

with my head down and

sneakers on and

now only one

song remains:

 

don’t ask

if he is

true,

if he is

certain,

if he is

here,

don’t ask

 

Remember Me?

you devoured me, an apricot

did you find the stone amidst

that red-black blood

bubbling from the pits your incisors bore

 

i consumed you, a wafer

firmly placed, dissolving on my tongue

you vanished into dark caverns

 

i can hear you

still pulsing in the velvet sound –

 

oh yes, remember me?

  

An Austin native, Hooks ’18 graduated with Phi Beta Kappa and Highest Distinction in English. Recently, her work garnered the Anne Flexner Award for Poetry, the Council for the Arts Award for Excellence, and the Academy of American Poets Prize. More of her poetry is available in APSU’s Red Mud Review and Z Publishing’s North Carolina’s Best Emerging Poets.