t r e y    j o r d a n    h a r r i s

Before We Were Married

Now That We Are Married

How We Are Married

Before We Were Married

The very first shape we
ever made was the shape
of the Great Barrier Reef

or something. Then
I think you must have
said Look! at my
albatross beak!

because I looked right
away at your albatross
beak. I do not think

this was a mistake
because we were married
by many tiny herons shaped into
one big heron. Here is the end

of our wedding day:
Do you take this man?
Do you take this woman?
Heron. Heron.

next

Now That We Are Married

I am holding my
breath while you swim
because I learned this trick

where I hold my breath
while you swim.
I am sewing

sundresses all day and for
whom? Please, give me
a hint or I will never

get the sizes right.
I am thinking of going
to the rodeo. What do

you say to that? In the fall
I'm going to the woods, you
stupid idiot, where the skies
are not cloudy all day.

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How We Are Married

We are married like great
glacier lakes like a plethora
a downright plethora of superheated
feathers a sundress hanging from
every last tree like the boundaries
of a rodeo. Asking one another
By what process do talons
develop? Like hand-shaped
fireworks or two rivers like one
long tooth like a field
of giraffes gently walking a herd
of giraffes lining your mother's
mouth. By what process does
a herd of giraffes develop?
We are married like a hand
on a banister like Queen
Anne's lace held deliberately
over our eyes we are married
until death do us marry.

next

TREY JORDAN HARRIS lives in Missouri. Other poems appear or will appear in elimae, DIAGRAM, Jellyfish, and ABJECTIVE.

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