'Hours of Tenebrosity' & 'Somewhere in Texas': Two Poems by Elyse Grant

HOURS OF TENEBROSITY

I’ll give you these nights

the ones spent under the desert moon at one of two bars in a Kingman town &

I’ll give you the nights

where you breach the state line and stumble into a casino oasis

where you collect stripper cards like sports cards &

I’ll give you the nights

in old town at Mort’s cigar bar

where you share a table with an old couple who’ve had too much to drink &

claim the live music sounds better from their apartment window &

I’ll give you this night

sitting at my faux marble table

watching the moth slam itself repeatedly against the lampshade hanging from the ceiling

under the roof where the cypress tree touches it gently with it’s leaves

while the humidity hangs in balance with the ocean breeze.

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SOMEWHERE IN TEXAS

I met a rabbit the other day

his hair a dusty orange &

freckles spattered beneath

a pool of green & hazel bubble-spheres

& he watched me slide

between bodies because it was the first

time I dragged my toes in pebbled dirt

& I suppose he got tired of observing my

nervous feet so he shuffled to my side & held out his paw

& swayed to the strumming that floated

through the light-strings hanging from the starless sky.

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Elyse Grant, a New Jersey native, is a freelance writer and enjoys writing poetry. She graduated from Stockton University with a B.A. in English, and placed first for the Jennifer Cakert Poetry award in 2015. In addition to writing articles, she is one of two poetry editors for Goat’s Milk Magazine. When she is not writing, you can find her reading some of her favorite authors, searching for new coffee roasts, and traveling throughout the states with her boyfriend. Find her on Twitter: @lysegrant, or on Instagram: @lookingfor_extraordinary.