what if I began with the duck’s egg

its glossy carmine yolk bleeding

on the lake’s new summer path

its blue-green shell turned

inside out

if I say the wind

was frightening, that in the early part of the storm

I only wanted him and nobody else would do

should I go farther and tell

when he slept beside me

I pressed my pelvis against him

like a drowsy springtime

animal but couldn’t uncross

my arms to touch him not even

his arms or face

now that he’s left for home

I’m flung wide open

do I need to say every day I’m filled

with the creature fear of not being cherished

when for you did this become

a poem about longing

draw an x to mark the place

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Gretchen Marquette is the author of May Day (Graywolf Press, 2016). Her poetry has appeared in Poetry, Harper’s, the Paris Review, Tin House, on PBS Newshour, and elsewhere. She lives in Minneapolis.

“Ache” was first published in Heaven (TLR, Summer 2016).