print previewback L.S. MCKEE
Adam at the Garden’s Edge
The gates darkened like ash
settling into its pit and what
I meant to say in that moment
was that I wanted you more for the way
you hid when I asked
what had happened—
not because it mattered, but to see you
delay, then decide you would
say yes, say, for you,
I would reveal what drags
in my heart like a rusty tiller
against this eroded garden’s
spine of stones. For you,
I would hand over this
impossible self, impossibly yours.
It was a selfish thing I wanted.
To blame you. But then again,
how I reached with both hands. 
Adam at the Garden’s Edge
Company Town
Shark’s Tooth