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On Learning of My Father’s Illness [November 22nd, 2011] by Liam Hysjulien

April 1, 2012 Contributed By: Liam Hysjulien

I don’t believe in anything,
but nature-via-beauty-con-science—

no cable that welcomes us
all home.

The crafted shore
of crying birds.
Alone in the belly
of a single branched tree.

I find these things all with you.

Or the words we rearranged
and the combinations that split
along the dirty water in my head.

I like this soulless hum
of metallic drivers, pistons firing

into the atomized filaments that wrap
down into the base of your spine.

I like it all these days. The drive through the loosened

rocks of the Cumberland. The moments in

our silence, the dipping in and out of range,
a mesh of spidered and fallen trees.

The darkening sky, the opening of the universe

dancing in a beautiful comb of white across what

I am still remembering

                 even now.

Return to table of contents for Issue 5 Spring 2012

Filed Under: Poetry Posted On: April 1, 2012

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When they threw me into the pit, a shard of flint split my chin. I flicked it out of my jawbone and lay In my leaking heap, regarding the fineness of its flesh- incising point. Up the black chimney of my prison Vulture stars were circling, repeating all the familiar horrifying patterns. There was blood […]

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The air around the ditch was thick with the smell of oranges. The sweetness of their blossoms mingled with the rot on the ground, creating the dank aroma of summer in Orange Cove. We stopped our bikes just short of the old city fence, and hopped off, letting them clatter to the dirt. My brother […]

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