Welcome to “Poetry at The Arts Fuse.” A new poem every Thursday

The Cantaloupe

No future no past
the day isn’t as fixed
as it may seem

what we take from
the hand of
a lamplight

bees are here
to revise every myth

flesh flays flesh
under fanfares of
locking lips

nakedness doesn’t strain
to answer the queries
of handprints

nor’ easter crashes
into a lighthouse

Uche Nduka is a poet-pilgrim, collagist, and essayist presently living in New York City. He is the author of 15 volumes of poems of which the latest are Bainbridge Island Notebook (Roof Books, 2023) and To Umber (The Bodily Press, 2025). He teaches at the New School’s Eugene Lang College and Queens College-CUNY.

Note: Hey poets! We seek submissions of excellent poetry from across the length and breadth of contemporary poetics. See submission guidelines here. The arbiter of the feature is the magazine’s poetry editor, John Mulrooney.

— Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx