- After Twenty Years of Trying I Decided to Be
I sorried. I slept & sheeped. I was underthe line of an aimed gun. I became agesago. I slept & sorrowed, our lady, a flower petaledover the edge of the bicycle lane. I had nowhere
to store my weathers, my August & its signaturesof heat. I weeded myself from my we. I wept not.I offshot each pigeon winged by buckshot intothe still, into the shardness of clay. I forgot
to forgive. I fought but law won. Sterling, I wassilvered as a fish in an ocean's thunder. I saltedthe wounded while birds pissed the fence.I gaslit my lantern. Myth-sparked I happied
myself with the story of evers & afters & forwards,slipperfooted, blinded by the glint off glass Irefused every glimpse factly showing me thatmy own hand authored & armed this dream of light. [End Page 52]
Emma Bolden received a 2017 Creative Writing Fellowship from the NEA and serves as the Senior Reviews Editor for Tupelo Quarterly. She is the author of medi(t)ations (2016) and Maleficae (2013).