I love the work a kiss can do. The way
it leaves language
harmless, temporary. 

The way it erases a whole history of distance.

It’s raining in Ohio this morning,
roadside ditches filled to overflowing,
and I don’t have words

for the distance between this morning
and our last kiss.
When I was an editor

I was taught not to write last
when I mean most recent.
What I mean

is we should be kissing even now.
I mean you should see this sky
emptying itself into the day.

So much rain. And
despite the rain, geese anyway. 
Torrents of them, flying home.

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Amorak Huey is author of five books of poems including Mouth, forthcoming from Cornerstone Press in 2026. Co-founder with Han VanderHart of River River Books, Huey teaches at Bowling Green State University. He is co-author with W. Todd Kaneko of the textbook Poetry: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology (Bloomsbury, 2024).