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Quiñones's poem "Ode to Desire" was originally published in The Southeast Review 35.2.

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Ode to Desire

Oh perfect engine

you craft me into

my most

terrible self

with two mouths two

furious gazes

you break the spines of

my favorite books

& cover

my body with their

unbound

poems

I prefer your lights

dim like a rolling

black wave

I promise to hold

my knees

to my chest

when it suits you

please bruise my neck

& make it the color

of strange

water

you who are

the written thing

rather than

its writer

you only open

your eyes when I’m slick-

skinned & salt-

licked

so on those nights

I need you to

make me into

whatever version

you like

best

& sink it

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