To Late Night Apprehensions, by Savannah Sloane

Posted on October 2, 2019

swallowing smoke through the whistle ruins

uncaged bird skeletons catch fire

furnace bones a memorial of cologne stench

dissolving hospitality

taking flight with phantom wings

that you dreamed up, but forgot the check on.

iron alignment

aching for a shift

pianos keys’ mouths sewn shut

only threaded murmurs that no one can piece together

cello body, rotting sternums

covered in dust

plucking at your inner workings

fingering your shape shifting,

esophageal disassembly of grey,

speckled eggs

that you can’t identify

you rub fern underbellies on stinging nettle leg

sky murky from weightless body

malleable marine surface from the great below

turning pages, newspaper flinch

hostile arms that can’t wade

your verbal sorcery latches cage

door shut.

*The Sixty-Four, best poets of 2018, The Black Mountain Press*