the first time i left you & austin/instead of groping down the minutes/we tangled our eyes across the bed/every hue of green reminds me/like placid drop of memory/shrug-woven hilltops/place-memories never leave/home is wherever i’m with you/perpetual vegas neon strip malls/a spill a stain & fighter jets screaming above/wine-drunk on sandcastles/or camp-marsh backyard outside savannah/bottomless in the dark first night/i bruise my shin so fast/the pain lingers into next year

D. E. Fulford is a writer and English instructor at Colorado State University. She holds master’s degrees in both creative writing and education and is presently in her second year of her Doctor of Education. Her chapbook, Southern Atheist: Oh, Honey, is forthcoming from Cathexis Northwest Press. Other poems can be found in Blood Pudding Press, Indolent Books, Dreamers Magazine, Crosswinds Poetry Journal, Sunspot Literary Journal, and more. She resides on the front range of the Rocky Mountains with her partner Levi and their chocolate Labrador, The Walrus. In her spare time, she can be found riding her Triumph Street Twin motorbike.