Gyroscope Review is celebrating National Poetry Month with a Poem Renaissance, a review of previously published poems looking for new life and new views. Every day through May 20th, a new poem to fall in love with all over again.
Don’t Wash
by Alexis Rhone Fancher
“I’m returning in three days. Don’t wash.”*
I touch myself so I can savvy what you rut in. Bring my fingers to my mouth, imagine you in our bed, returned from the three-day fray, redolent of the weight of the world, and me, your dirty, dirty girl, naked, eager, as you make your way down, breathing in my hair, my lips, the sweet spot where neck meets collarbone. I’ve made a religion of your fantasies, a science of what you desire. That ferine moan, my always startled gasp at first thrust. I angle, cocked hips, a bit askew. How I arch for maximum penetration, hands pushing against your chest, while my thighs pull you in. Our bed is a rocket launch, a bacchanal, a pelican’s steep dive into the sea. I revel in that you revel in me. A lifetime away from Michael, my first love, that long ago when I’d used the fresh-ening wipe before I arrived, so as not to offend. I’d spread myself wide on his bed, confident, watching the top of his head (black curls) as he explored me — that fear of not being Summer’s Eve™ fresh, worried my pussy might disenchant, the musk of me — all wiped away. He raised his head. Next time, Michael said, once he’d tasted me. Don’t wash.
*From a love letter Napoleon sent to Josephine
Published in SWWIM, Summer, 2020
Poet/photographer Alexis Rhone Fancher is published in Best American Poetry, Rattle, The
American Journal of Poetry, Spillway, Plume, Diode, The Pedestal Magazine, Duende, Vox
Populi, Gargoyle, Elysium Review, and elsewhere. Her photos are published worldwide,
including the covers of The Pedestal Magazine, Witness, Heyday, Pithead Chapel, The Mas
Tequila Review, and a six page spread in River Styx. She’s authored ten poetry collections, most
recently, Triggered, (MacQueens) and Brazen. (NYQ). A multi–Pushcart Prize and Best of
the Net nominee, Alexis recently won Best MicroFictions, 2025. She calls the Mojave Desert
home. www.alexisrhonefancher.com
Don’t forget to read the Spring 2025 Issue, available now, online and in print
Previous Renaissance Poets
April Poets