Dawn Angelicca Barcelona

I knew this sultry galaxy was magic when I opened the door.
It dissolved and left me with my inflammable memories.

You were too hot to touch, your back building heat against the wall
of this bar. It was a dark night and I wanted more of it.

I heard you humming on the way to my apartment. Your footsteps quieted
and you forgot I had a door code instead of a key you could borrow.

You wanted something beyond sunrise and I wanted to scoop you up
and throw you into the moon so no one else can hear you whisper.

You woke up and left. I turned my back to the door. You left misguidedly.

When I meet you again, I want your hands first then your arms around my back.
When I see you again, I want to be the poetry you imagined, broken up line by line.

If one of these days, it rains and you start scratching for my feelings
remember the layout of my apartment. Remember the number of steps to my bed.

I’d become the friend of your sorrow and tell you how to dissolve it.
Tell me why you want another dance. Tell me in reverse and I’ll join you.

If I knew how to put out the flames of my memories, I would bring the door back
and empty us into the sultry galaxy. I would stop us from burning too brightly.

Dawn Angelicca Barcelona is a poet from New Jersey. She is a winner of the San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Literary Award (2022) and Epiphany Magazine's Fresh Voices Fellowship (2023). She's currently a candidate in the Litowitz MFA+MA Program at Northwestern University. She is an alumna of The Fulbright Program, Community of Writers at Olympic Valley, VONA, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, and Kearny Street Workshop's Interdisciplinary Writers Lab. Her debut chapbook, Roundtrip, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in 2025. She likes to dance, talk about mental health, and travel via public transportation.