By M. B. Duffy
Capricorn 𖤓 | Capricorn ⏾ | Virgo ↑
Is this body an anchor or a penal colony?
A moot memory, a book etched in bone,
Untranslatable as your dead grandfather’s extinct mother tongue,
Still lingering in the syntax of your sleep
As a ghost, harsh words pass through me
As flesh, our hologram lifespan expands
You ask, each solstice, of my shadow in the lightless room:
How many infinities, truly, can our love endure?
Inside you, two hearts beat
The planet & the moon broken from it
The fragrance of calm fills the room
You cradle my cold, collapsed lungs
To live is to linger
Nowhere to go; forever to get there
M. B. Duffy is a retired aid worker who spent a decade working on humanitarian issues—most of which was spent across West and Central Africa. He gained expertise in dead body management and substance abuse in Sierra Leone, rural logistics and heartbreak while supplying refugee camps in the Congo, and rebel negotiations and burnout in the Central African Republic. He now lives in San Francisco, where he’s found a niche in much less perilous municipal logistics. You can find him, his poetry, and his photography on Instagram and TikTok @mbduffy.
A Curious Moon 