Fever by Fisayo Adeyeye

Boy and Jesus on the bottom of the boat,
stale fruit tin smell, elementary school

lunch stomachs. Jesus guts a fish and
throws it back. “You only throw live ones

back.” Boy says, “You’re doing it wrong.”
They both burn dry ginger red. Smoke

cream from apple cores. Boy never asks
what it feels like to want wrong things in

the right ways. But some nights watches
Jesus sit on top of the barn, comb all the

dark blood out of his hair.

...

Fisayo Adeyeye is an MFA candidate at SFSU. His poems have been featured in Little River, Potluck Magazine, and Have U Seen My Whale.