Bright Dendrites
Rent from DeepDyve- Bright Dendrites
The dead are coming and they are wearingknives shaped like your memoryof them. They are not coming because you chosepink shoes for the funeral or because you didn'tcry hard enough. They are coming to meetyou at the pub or down the hall at the foyerwhere they used to put on their coats. Theyare coming because you tell their jokesand they are their jokes, the wayyou laughed at them, the way they laughedat your laughter. They are coming because the busis late or the sun is slanting pink through the mini-blinds. They come because coins make youthink of death, because they have been to death,because you can't have been. They are coming foryour birthday, your first date in four months, the awkwardfollow-up. This is the thing about the dead, they comewhen you don't want them, when you desperately,breathlessly need them and they always come armed. [End Page 1]
John A. Nieves has poems forthcoming or recently published in such journals as Beloit Poetry Journal, American Literary Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Puerto del Sol, and Mid-American Review. He won the Indiana Review poetry contest, and his first book, Curio (2014), won the Elixir Press Annual Poetry Award Judge's Prize. He is an assistant professor of English at Salisbury University. He received his MA from University of South Florida and his PhD from the University of Missouri.
