Week 52: Despy Boutris

ODE TO THE LAST BOY I KISSED
(OR, AFTER REREADING NERUDA)

Like forget-me-nots, I want you
(I do, I do), to do what I want

to do with you (as often as rabbits
do), to lay you down on this

meadow (the color of your eyes).
Let me do what I want to do

(you) and let me keep wanting
you the way I do (and let those

blue flowers bloom).

Despy Boutris’s writing has been published or is forthcoming in American Poetry Review, The Gettysburg Review, Copper Nickel, Colorado Review, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. Currently, she teaches at the University of Houston, works as Assistant Poetry Editor for Gulf Coast, and serves as Editor-in-Chief of The West Review.