Will Arbery


Going Blind


I forgot how to count. I was dipping my hand into a bowl of rice and I felt like my hand was in a cast made of living insects. There was no single grain of rice. I couldn't imagine any edges. Soon everything became enclosed, like jelly. The refrigerator did not end, and became the china cabinet. There was no such thing as either. Nothing ended, nothing began. My dog was a sofa. My own feet were a stack of National Geographics. Cabinets did not open. Cabinets were plates, and, once, a cockroach. Everything was a deep hole near which I was always lingering. I looked for cold, cold places. I looked for eggs. I could still count eggs when they were cold, sitting five or six to a fist, truced in precious balance. I imagined them brown. I stood by the cold unopening of the non-refrigerator and counted, but when one egg fell, they all did, and I ran my hands sobbing through dripping tile until they became sand.

A.J. Huffman


Alone.  But Comforted.

You lay in a pile of billowing cotton.  Sainted
white piled and pulled up over your head.  I struggle
to find my place inside this scene.  Orchestrating
a bare-assed dig.  I twist and turn.  Contorting
my body into a shadow-shape.  Echoing you,
I settle into the background.  Not quite conformed.
(Not quite confirmed.)  But balanced
enough that I just might pass as a puzzle[d?] piece
of this night’s moonless dream.

Dawnell Harrison


Feed


Disappointment has another mouth
to feed and the earth is encumbered

with barbed wire.
I hear the echoes of despair

in this chilly December evening as
the crows drag their black dregs

behind them.
my pain dissolves in a quivering circle

as the night bends a band of blazon
snow hanging on the horizon.

gary lundy


exorcise


take white paper
make sure it remains
unwrinkled without scars

take white paper
without blemish
cut it into seven equal pieces

seven signifying completeness
write upon each of the seven pieces
your name

write upon each of the seven pieces
your name
the one possessing

write your name
the one possessing
upon each of the seven pieces

with care and deliberation
hold each piece toward the east
with care and deliberation

hold each piece toward the east
ask the dawn to bless us
with care and deliberation

with care and deliberation
ask the dawn to bless us
kiss each piece in its turn

in its turn kiss each piece
be very still
bow your head

with each piece in its turn
take a match and light it
turn the flame onto paper

take a match and light it
turn the flame onto paper
as each piece flames speak

i must forget you
as each piece flames speak
i must forget you

seven times
take a match and light it
turn the flame onto paper

as each piece flames speak
i must forget you
i love you

five times
with a match
turn the flame onto paper

as each piece flames speak
i must forget you
i love you

i must let you go
three times
with the final match

turn the flame onto paper
speak a last time
i offer you the wind