Derrick Austin is the author of Trouble the Water (BOA Editions) and Tenderness, forthcoming from BOA in fall 2021. His poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Image: A Journal of Arts and Religion, New England Review, The Nation, and Tin House. He’s currently a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.
from Persian Blue
Tonight, our thousand and second night,
tell me the story of our laughter
through sudden summer rain.
Tell me the story of salt: on your shoulder,
chest, and chin. Tell me how that first week
we seemed to know our pasts by heart,
where we’d been and where we planned to go.
An excerpt from “Persian Blue” by Derrick Austin from Trouble the Water (BOA Editions, 2016). Reprinted with the permission of the publisher.