THE ARMATURE ON WHICH THEIR FLESH IS FORMED      

by Alice Campbell Romano

                                                                                                           
Some men have at their core a magnet of desire
charged by a constant current of electric need.

Heat smolders outward, as from a night-banked fire
through skin, drawing women to them. 

And men. I feel the pull in the easy way they stand,
before they turn and catch my gaze. Such men

use the power behind their eyes to start a blaze.
I am wary. I look away, deny the draw,

but weak as crumbled leaves,
I burn.


* * * * *

"The Armature on Which Their Flesh Is Formed" is part of the author's chapbook in progress at Hudson Valley Writers' Center.

Alice Campbell Romano has worked in film and TV in Italy, her native New York, and Los Angeles. Her first chapbook of poetry trembles on the brink of completion while she polishes a novel begun at Sarah Lawrence’s Writing Institute. Alice’s poetry and short stories have appeared in Atlantic Review (finalist in International Competition), Antiphon, Mudfish Review, Front Porch Review, Thema, among other online and print journals.