demolish

Level works and topple
and raze and maybe bulldoze

but it’s hard not to relish
demolish as the tongue

presses its curled tip
against the lower teeth,

then flattens it back
before slipping it

beneath the upper incisors,
demolish more full-bodied

than destroy, than annihilate,
than the open-mouth assonance

of lay waste, though ruin
has its lip-puckering appeal,

demolish more luscious,
despite what many

may want to think,
than peace or survive.

William Aarnes has moved from South Carolina to New York this past summer. His most recent collection is The Hum in Human, from Main Street Rag.