When Aaron Hotchner is the love interest in your dream by Marisa Silva Dunbar

Tell me what it’s like not to be lonely anymore,

to have a lover who listens, holds your hand—

rubs the bone of your wrist with his thumb,

circles it slowly to soothe the quaking 

of your nerves on days of broken glass

and explosions. He knows even when you’re shaken—

you are made of magic, that you weave protection

spells around him when he must leave to save

the world from the evil that stalks us at the grocery

stores, movie theaters, protests. You are a reckoning,

his counterpart during the day and when the professionalism 

fades, and his office door lock clicks into place. 

You inspire the smirk on his face—

the goddess divine, let him perform acts of devotion,

he wants to watch your pretty eyes roll back 

in your head, hear the anticipation pouring

from your lips. 

Marisa Silva-Dunbar’s work has been published in Analogies & Allegories Literary Magazine, Dear Reader, Rough Diamond, and Cult of Clio. Marisa is the co-editor of the anthology “Kirstofia.” She has work forthcoming in Sledgehammer Lit Mag. Her second chapbook, “When Goddesses Wake,” is forthcoming from Maverick Duck Press. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @thesweetmaris.