Love Song in the Key of H

You call just to say

you have nothing 


to do all afternoon

& a half empty


hotel room

& a glass 


of iced vermouth

pressed to 


your forehead —

you know 


I crave 

the sweat


along your 

collarbone & later


you make a point

of swallowing


oysters

by the dozen


watching me

as you squeeze


a wedge of lemon

over each. God


forgive me 

for thinking heaven 


is high-thread-count

& cold A/C


You’re just

a memory I think


of when a song

like this comes


on — I’ll always

stop to listen


but can’t figure

what it means

---

Reed Turchi is a poet and musician from Swannanoa, North Carolina, now living in Brooklyn. His debut collection, "Dancing with Poets," was selected by Victoria Chang for the 2026 Colorado Prize for Poetry, and he won a Grammy Award and received an Emmy nomination for his music. Turchi earned his MFA from Warren Wilson College, where he was awarded the Ellen Bryant Voigt Scholarship.

“Love Song in the Key of H” appears in Reed Turchi’s Dancing with Poets, winner of the 2026 Colorado Prize for Poetry selected by Victoria Chang and forthcoming from University Press of Colorado in November. Available for pre-order here.