A Kind of Lightning

February 16, 2021 1 Comment

S. Yarberry's poem "A Kind of Lightning" appears in Issue 58: What Remains.

________

S. Yarberry

A Kind of Lightning

 

The days pass—selected,
and each morning comes—
hot and slow. Another
counterfeit fight

to blow off steam. Mosquitoes
are so unquenchable,
this time of year.
A cockroach

stuck on its back
near the brown
wood bookcase. We find so
many ways to kill

ourselves. When day breaks
what will become of us?
The yellow finch. The squirrel
digging in the garden.

Death, obviously. But what else?
After the glamour shatters.
The lipstick tube empties. Condoms
all gone from the drawer. O a pile.

A heap. A body. How horrible.
I think it’s okay to be angry,
I say. I am saying all the time now.
There was a small fire

in the yard last night.
I put it out with the last of my beer.
Remember? You touched my hand.
It’s all I think about. The yellow

finch like peripheral lightning.
It’s so easy to miss these things.

 

________

S. Yarberry is a trans poet and writer. Their poetry has appeared in Tin House, Indiana Review, pulpmouth, The Offing, jubilat, Notre Dame Review, The Boiler, miscellaneous zines, among others. Their other writings can be found in Bomb Magazine, The Adroit Journal, and Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly. They currently serve as the poetry editor of The Spectacle. S. has their MFA in Poetry from Washington University in St. Louis and is now a PhD candidate in English literature at Northwestern University.

 

Photo by Viktor Talashuk on Unsplash

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