Anti-Heroin Chic
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Music
  • Art
  • Comedy
  • About Our Contributors
  • Masthead
  • Issues
  • About our contributors - 2019
  • About Our Contributors - 2020
  • About Our Contributors - 2021
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Music
  • Art
  • Comedy
  • About Our Contributors
  • Masthead
  • Issues
  • About our contributors - 2019
  • About Our Contributors - 2020
  • About Our Contributors - 2021
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

​

11/30/2021

Poetry by Cynthia Atkins

Picture
              ​Simon CC



​
WHEN THE WELL RUNS DRY 

Did the owls in tree branches know before us---? That first they would come for touch, until we no longer needed our skin, until our bodies are tin cans, rattling the road in the amphitheater where our old selves dwell.  We live in a box to avoid a virus; we live in a virus to avoid a box.  I used to be a little girl in pigtails, practicing how to whistle in the March wind. It blew through me, and sound went inward, screeching as a train pulling into a station. I used to have neighbors, they used to throw stones.  Now we send our love through living rooms.  First, they came for the candlesticks, then our unmentionables.  I want to look at someone who looks me back.  I need to feel a face after rain. Let me wash my hands until I reach the source where loneliness hangs her hat.  We are so bellicose and tribal—We are tight-lipped as telegrams. Riled by want, touching computer screens with our groomed fingers—As flies pass to and from.  Like our last blown out birthday candles, we are huddled and hungry as a pack of wolves on the coldest night of the year—The subway rips through the city, opening its doors, my face pushing through water to breathe.

​



​Cynthia Atkins is the author of Psyche’s Weathers, In The Event of Full Disclosure (CW Books) and Still-Life With God (Saint Julian Press 2020), and a collaborative chapbook forthcoming from Harbor Editions, 2022.  Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including Alaska Quarterly Review, The American Journal of Poetry, BOMB, Cleaver Magazine, Diode, Florida Review, Green Mountains Review, Indianapolis Review, Rust + Moth, North American Review, Seneca Review, SWWIM, Thrush, Tinderbox, and Verse Daily. Formerly, Atkins worked as the assistant director for the Poetry Society of America, and has taught English and Creative Writing, most recently at Blue Ridge Community College. She is an Interviews Editor for American Microreviews and Interviews.  She earned her MFA from Columbia University and has earned fellowships and prizes from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Writer’s Voice, and Writers@Work.  Atkins lives on the Maury River of Rockbridge County, Virginia, with artist,  Phillip Welch and their family.  More work and info at: www.cynthiaatkins.com
​
Cynthia Atkins link
12/7/2021 10:50:34 am

Thank you for housing my poem so beautifully Editor @JamesDiaz--tender car is taken! Safe trails to you and thanks for the light in ths issue @antiheroinchic ~C


Comments are closed.

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    December 2024
    November 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    March 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.