Jeffrey Douglas is a 2023 graduate of the University of Toronto, CSE Creative Writing program. His poems were published in issue thirteen of The Temz Review. He is currently working on a memoir about rediscovering self after dissociation through trauma.
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Hey, hi , here’s a sampler of recent yearnings, because yearning lies at the very depth of desire.
xx Jeffrey
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this thing we do
this thing we do
where I wait for you to call
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where you wait for me to call
each thinking the other is too busy, losing interest
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each hoping to hear from the other soon
while I pretend not to care, days pass into night
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while you pretend not to care, days turn into weeks
sadness becomes the shield we each secretly wear
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sadness becomes evidence of the love we share, we shared
a competition to see who will speak first, or last
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a competition that feels more like wanting
the more needed, the more missed
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the more loved, the more desired
defensiveness grows, you didn’t ever really love me
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defensiveness grows like moss in a forest
thickens into dense, into familiar
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thickens into bitterness
hardens into stone
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hardens into shell that protects
a soft and vulnerable self
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a soft place where beauty rests
this place is the place we first met
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raccoon
you scratch at my door
for a place to sleep
six am smudge
after a wild night out
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coarse hairs thick
slicked-back
patted-down respectable
itchy smile
hello
not quite a bear
more fastidious
sharp and cunning
your persistent gaze
and well-oiled charm
move into me and never leave
feral instincts twist
in fading moon-hard shadows
inhabit lumbering bones
and bite at the lip
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of the languid
urban forest
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autumn
August kiss cools
on a single September lip,
persimmon blush
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your October silence
falls, breathless
settling onto my leafy chest
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we embrace
then curl to crisp,
November dry
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inside a December mirror
no fire to ignite
charred memory
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a brittle glass
thick enough to see
into the depth of longing
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