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So, The Portal To Another Dimension Is Not In The Hudson

 

                        …you are life, rarer than a quark…

                        - Jonathan Osterman

 

In times of distress

            I look to the water.

Today it’s the Hudson.

I was hoping for fog

and all I got was the sun

                                    rolling diamonds

down river like roulette balls.

And I could see my reflection,

            a specter,

                        atop the glitz and shimmer.

                       

He walked

toward me as he started

                                    devouring

his own arm,     took a chunk right out

from behind the elbow—

the part that heats up

                                    when someone asks

            you to hold them tighter.

 

He kept taking bites

            until his arm was gone.

 

Now in front of me

            his head swiveled in a way

that only a dead thing could.

 

I watched, red-eyed in terrible

                                    beauty,

as he sunk his teeth into his shoulder,

                        wondered if I was supposed

to be watching.

 

The sun whipped the smell

                                    of breathing

off the gems of the Hudson

                        as I lunged into its riches.

 

First published in FLAPPERHOUSE, 2017

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