"Tonight We Listened to Big Thief's Vegas" by Ben Glaser

Tonight We Listened to Big Thief’s Vegas

in another lifetime we loved

only in your mother tongue

in this lifetime, there is nothing

original about words

leaving a mouth

no new way to form an i love you

or to speak. you sang for me

a fishhook soprano

renamed me

in the language of your desire

called my cold fingers home

when you couldn’t route

the GPS to it

tonight, we danced to Vegas

you held me with hands born reaching

to another’s trembling words

we stuffed gaps in lyrics

with the familiar vocabulary of limbs

your mouth sprouted

american bellflower

you said make home

somewhere you’ll miss

i drew a counterfeit stamp

over the impossible

Ben Glaser is a trans writer and educator based in Philadelphia, where he teaches early literacy. He began writing in the Southern Tier of NY, alongside a dog named after a national park.