• PROFILE│When Greg Giezentanner opens a box of donated books, he sees more than pages; he sees possibilities

• PROFILE | Drew Gentle, the animator-turned-fine-artist, spent decades shaping the worlds of classic animations, and now he portrays the ‘Singular Humanity’ in every face he draws

• PROFILE | From Chicago to the Ozarks, poet Carolyn Guinzio never felt like an outsider when she first saw Fayetteville

Read the rest of my work at nwaonline.com

Blush

(2025)

Rosy red cheeks
peeled skin
  from our backs
 floating
   slow-spinning
in the rapid pull of a creek
   the creek
    you showed me
  the wake
    you revealed

Rosy red cheeks
peeled skin
  from our backs
 gathering
   in the shower basin
the day
 rinsing from us
   your home
    opened

Rosy red cheeks
 we rotate
   under the cascade
soap     shampoo
    spiraling
     your tongue—
      patient
      precise—
   between   rosy red cheeks

        I blush.