5/12/2018 1 Comment Poetry By Eli Sahmon the morning i got a writing degree i heard local birds pop in the trees because there were too many feather-bubbles blown by small-cheeked children as painters dropped objects from the library roof into a dumpster they seemed to slow down as they fell toward the smack they were books my diploma explained in its white darkness i unraveled the smacks until they sounded like hands being amputated by cinderblocks of prehistoric cash the local dean said, poor dumpster i took hard notes until my phone shattered into the gray plastic of my dad’s hair so i asked what the fuck should i do now? and sat there relaxed on my feet so clever-looking i almost couldn’t stand it the librarians emerged and passed around a water fountain between themselves they said they were being recycled restored? i said recycled they said restored? i said i asked what i was going to do now doesn’t the ocean sound like enough? the ocean makes enough sound aren’t the ocean sounds enough? every seagull agrees they’re just always hungry their feathers are cold but they aren’t and they’re just always hungry poetry reading voice it might look like i’m standing here sweating confidence but i’m actually drowning in debt so unreal it’s warm as walking beside semi trucks on the highway their horns the most poetic sounds i can imagine i’m talking from paper which isn’t talking it’s too quiet to hear me i should be a video i should set the paper on fire and make up whatever i can’t read fast enough until my hands are ruined so i’d have to carry drinks with my arms for awhile against my chest or with my teeth or not at all and you’d all applaud as hard as you could for me to stop but i won't until you ball up this page and throw it at me to keep the fire going Bio: Eli Sahm received his MFA from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He was a finalist for the 2016 NC State Annual Poetry Contest and his work has appeared or is forthcoming in Your Impossible Voice, Occulum, Rabid Oak, Show Your Skin, The Indianapolis Review, and Cotton Xenomorph.
1 Comment
Jan
5/12/2018 12:22:22 pm
Fantastic job, Eli!
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