No, wait...

by Lauren Camp

Let me try again to explain.

        The story goes backward at one point,
leaving only broken dots of color. She folds the heartache

between pages of a book she doesn’t like. Are you in love?

Yes, she would’ve said
               —and no. She is bigger now, still tender.

* * * * *

"No, wait..." was first published in Santa Fe Literary Review and is part of Lauren Camp's poetry collection The Dailiness (Edwin E. Smith Publishing, 2013).

Lauren Camp is the author of four books of poems. Her work has been honored with the Dorset Prize, fellowships from Black Earth Institute and The Taft-Nicholson Center, and a finalist citation for the Arab American Book Award. Her poems have been translated into Mandarin, Turkish, Spanish and Arabic. www.laurencamp.com