loving you then
was pee in the pool:
a little bit sneaky...
only we could feel
the warm cloud enveloping
our crotches.
it was the kissing
under my windows
so anyone looking out
couldn’t see us,
how a kid prays
the purple ring
that forms around
pool-pee-ers is just
a rumor meant
to scare them.

loving you then
was pee after a few beers:
i was surprised how much
there was &
how it kept coming.
if love was pee,
then you’re a bottle
of moscato: you
just keep making
it all pour out of me
& later in bed
i’m drenched.

loving you then
was asparagus pee:
so strong that the girl
in the next stall over
can smell it;
the kind of love
that lingers
even after we leave
a bathroom together
at a party.

loving you then
was peeing my pants at a joke:
sure, i was
a little embarrassed
but i couldn’t help it.
what could be more
human than letting go,
feeling all this joy
that it spills out of me
in acrid lemon puddles.

loving you now
is pee; it happens
everyday. i feel closest
to you when my
pee washes you
out of me &
you watch from
the doorway.

McKenzie Hurder is a recent graduate from UMass Boston. Her work has appeared in Fleas on the Dog, Rose Quartz Magazine, The Horny Poetry Review, Allegory Ridge’s Aurora Anthology, and is forthcoming in The East Jasmine Review. Follow her on Instagram @elwyn_esque