The Names of Animals I Have Loved | Alexis David

ALEXIS DAVID is a poet and fiction writer who holds a BA from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, an MA in education from Canisius College and an MFA in fiction from New England College. She has published in My Next Heart: New Buffalo Poetry(BlazeVOX 2017), Green Mountains Review, Qween City, Ghost City Review, and Thimble Magazine. Alexis is from Buffalo, NY and enjoys poetry about the human-animal relationship.   Desert FloodingI follow the darkness into the darknessfind rectangles of light that border the moonI follow darkness in my own homea long time ago, I woke in the darknessto a ring of light. the moon and the San Rafael reefand a river and I followed the darkness into the darknesscamping: urine mixing with sand reminds me I am an animaland that pissing is such a perfect verb.