Caleb Braun

These Fine Auroras

Like the silent church before the service begins
I wake in knowledge of dawn and turn
to see your face again 

as though we aren’t ourselves
alone. The most of my life I’ve been
afraid of saying yes to yes and no 

to not yet now. The day is asking
itself, the room becoming
skied. I reach your chest and you are 

breathing. Crisp light in the window
and awe, more useful than shame, flows
through the shade. I see what 

I know: the siding of your face lightens like the old
farmhouse and warms like this room
in winter noons; we hold what words 

we will have
       hold us, as parts together
for this first time again.

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Caleb Braun earned an MFA in poetry from the University of Washington and a PhD in English at Texas Tech University. He is an Assistant Professor of English at Bethany College. His poems have appeared in Best New Poets 2022, Gettysburg Review, Blackbird, Cincinnati Review, Gulf Coast, 32 Poems and others. He can be found online at calebbraun.com.