Nicole Yurcaba’s most recent poem to appear here was “Ordering Chinese Food Without You” (September 2018). 

Sunday Morning, Lying Beside My Fiancé
By Nicole Yurcaba

The morning dozes Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven;”
road traffic hums backroad asphalt; morning birds suck
deep and wail with Robert Plant’s myths. You, my love,
sleep: your gray hair cowlicked, your eyes closed; your
lips peacefully smirked as I read Geoffrey Hill’s “Asmo-
deus,” and Jimmy Page solos bustles in hedgerows.

Quietly, my demons exit, heads bowed, knowing
that when you awake you will draw the quilt
over us, ignoring the clock’s decomposing hour.