2 poems by Ashley Brim
between you and there
That window sticks
you said, so I wiggled it a bit more
kissed its lock, and it broke
shattering the clear boundary between
you and there and us and that
leaves twirl inside whirl around your face
(I grab onto you,
but bones click and skin wastes down
drips
like thick cookie dough on a pan)
until you shatter into green leaves, and float
around our hand-made apartment, taking on a
new life
a little leaf family
you and me leafed happily ever after
in that moment, space, in darkness
you are still there in your leaf form, cradling leaf me
I try to take in deep fall breaths, but the leaves overcome me,
suffocate
me,
now browned and crunchy, have no business
here anymore,
I fight against it, slowly, half-dreaming
I finger their crisp frame
they dissolve, turn air
I suck them into my mouth
to have one final taste of you
okay
It’s definitely probably something because I can tell but you’re right probably not but it is maybe or not I don’t know I think so um perhaps or not hmm probably I think maybe uh hmm okay or not or something but really maybe it may have but it’s doubtful but it could have and uh it’s okay what? I don’t know somewhere things and items are or and… or there I’m not quite sure that which to okay but don’t you always no it may be time but it’s probably not so maybe oh um sure it’s alright there over there now somewhere around here but not too far around don’t you see? no okay I think so uh um here um see? no okay maybe mayhaps probably gone not here but there or somewhere something… thing item miscellaneous they said but I didn’t hear did you do that thing again? no okay so about that not here and not there but in between between all those things that people say those people over there you see no not there okay hmm I’m not sure but I’m sure about some things okay you know no okay I don’t think we should but if you think we should we should but we should try not to do that thing where people come and act all sorts of out of it and stuff not because but of everything here but because of everything there so probably we could or maybe we shouldn’t but either way let’s pick one because we could have them all so let’s try not to be there and instead stay here if that is okay it is about time around this time yesterday or was that today could happen tomorrow uh okay you get what I’m saying, right? because sometimes it’s really about some other stuff.
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Ashley Brim holds an MFA in Writing from CCA. It remains rolled up next to her desk, where she mostly uses it as a weapon against her checking account. Her work has appeared in Samizdat Literary journal, BANG OUT, calmaplombprombombbalm, and others.
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© 2012, Metazen.
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